The Truth Behind The Darkness
by StoryMaster Rayleigh
Summary: No one knows and no one cares. They know Black Mage is evil. Nobody asks why he is evil. We all thought is has always been this way, the mighty heroes slay the villains. But is he truly the evil one? Or is there someone that is making everything going as planned? 405 years have passed. The curtains of truth shall finally be raised.
1. Prolouge

Why?

Why is this happening?

Why is nobody trying to help?

She said that the Aurora is created to help people and study the magic of light across the world.

Then why, why is nobody trying to help her, to heal her?

Because of what she looks like right now?

How could they do this?

She helped them, she gave them a home, a reason to live, a chance to help people.

Then why is nobody helping her?

I searched every single book in this world with my fastest speed, I asked anyone that could possibly hold the answer to her sickness.

But I still failed.

I can't do anything because I just obtained the title of Transcendence of Light half a year ago. I'm still unable to fully use my powers yet.

I went and searched for the other transcendence, but what did they said?

"I'm sorry Wing, but I can't help you because my responsibility as the Transcendence of Life is to maintain the order of life and death. I can't cross the line to help you. I'm truly sorry for what happened to her." said Alice.

She is just selfish. She doesn't want to help a person that is going to become a demon.

The **Monster**** Transformation Virus**. The virus will turn the person into a monster and when the transformation is complete, the person will die in a horrible death.

"Even if I turn back Time you can't prevent the virus from infecting her. I wish I could help, but I have searched every book in the Genesis Library with my priests, even books in the Forbidden Chamber but still..." said the Transcendence of Time.

She is lying. Just like everyone did. She can't possibly search the books in the Forbidden Chamber.

I hate myself that I can't do anything to help her and all I can is to watch her suffer from the virus.

Then, she died.

She didn't even have a proper burial since everyone is scared of looking at her disgusting flesh.

I wished that I am the one that is suffering and died not her.

She deserved more than this.

She lost everything in the age of ten. She watched her whole village massacred in front of her very eyes.

That is the reason why she created Aurora to prevent anyone share the same fate as her's.

But it didn't turn out to be what she expected. They turned their back on her when she was dying.

"Don't hate them Wing, they are just afraid. I'm just glad that no one was infected by the virus."

Even till the end she still cared about them.

But I'm not like her.

My flame for revenge to the world that have betrayed her ignites.

I've spent years researching the most powerful black magic to revive people. But all is in vain. The magic that revives people only revives their corpse, they have no souls in them. The Resurrection spell that the Bishops learned can only revive a person from physical injury, not virus curse like she had.

I've lost my sanity. I can only think of having revenge on the world.

I've conquered almost all of the Maple World and even wanted to obtain other worlds.

Then,they rose up. The six of them. They tried to destroy me, but, of course, the last trick up their sleeves are just merely part of my plan.

I have it all. Their action has completed my plan. I have the world just on my palm.

I feel empty. What I had done is to fill the part of my heart that is missing. I don't want all of this. I just want her.

400 years have passed. It's time to finish what I've started.

Please wait for me, Emily.


	2. Spell 1:This is how it begins

**Hi guys! Sorry for the late update because I was busy studying, taking tests and play Maple Story (the revamped Zen skills are so awesome that makes me want to keep playing). Anyway, please enjoy~~~**

* * *

Is the same nightmare again.

She was screaming in pain. Everyone else just stands there, with no expression on their face, watching her die.

Then, she blames me for everything, cursing me, which I know that is not true because I know that she love me and she will never say something like that.

After she died, I woke up, as usual.8:00 A.M. That is the time she passed away. I don't even need an alarm clock to wake me up.

I stand up from my 'sleeping chair' and start preparing breakfast. I don't need to clean myself or change my clothes because they are always clean.

I place the fried eggs, sausages and slices of bread on a big plate and put it on the dining table. Then, I take out two plates from the cupboard and put it on the table.

I start walking towards a room with a pink door and I knock the door.

"Emily, it's time to wake up."

A voice came out from the room, "Hmrgh. I'll be out in ten minutes."

I walk back to the dining room and sit on my chair, wait her to come out from her room in exactly ten minutes.

A 15-year old girl opens the pink door.

"You are 5 seconds late from what you promise. Didn't I teach you to keep promises no matter what?"

"I DIDN'T promise you; I just SAID that I would come out from my room ten minutes later." She walks down the corridor from her room and stand in front of me while talking.

"Today is your 15-year-old birthday, right? Since you didn't keep your promise, then I don't need to keep mine too-"

"I'm sorry Master. I will keep my promise from now on." She instantly kneels down in front of me and begs me.

Why can't I always say no to her? Maybe is because she used the term 'Master'.

"Get up. And don't call me Master, you know that I prefer you call me by my name."

"But feel that I am disrespecting you because you are the strongest mage ever lived and the only mage that is able to battle the Black Mage alone. I like to call you Master is also of course that you are my savior. "

That is a lie of course. And it will always be a lie.

"Call me by my name or you can feast your eyes by looking me eat my breakfast (although I don't need to eat and still can survive)"

"Fine, whatever. Can I have my breakfast right now, Wing?"

"Yes, you may."

I stand up from my chair and walk toward the dining table with her. She keeps smiling when I gave her permission to enjoy her breakfast. Her smile is so pure and I wish I could have more of this moment.

"Before we start your training, run 30 laps on the run track and give me 30 push-ups followed by 30 sit-ups first." That is the first thing I said after we finished our breakfast and walk out from the old wood house.

Her jaw totally drops when I give her the order.

"B-But…"

"Now."

"Hmmph. Fine."

She starts running as she replies me. I can her cursing me under her breath.

She is so childish. But what kind of skill does she want to learn I wonder.

2 hours later.

"I've…I've finished the 'warm-up' exercise." she lies down immediately after finishing her sentence.

I sit down beside her and try asking her what she wants to learn. But I can't open my mouth and ask because that is not who I am.

"Aren't you going to ask me what skill am I going to choose to learn?"

Is she reading my mind? Well, the past her is good at mind reading so maybe—

"It's written all over your face. Fufufu." Said Emily with a muzzled laugh*.

She suddenly sits up and says," I want to learn anti-magic swordsmanship."

I turned my head and look at her face with a cold face. Her words are like meteorites fall from the sky. I understand that she wants to learn anti-magic skills to defeat the Black Mage, but swordsmanship? Where did that come from?

"The other day I saw some samurai looking guy showing off his skills in the market. After sawing those skills, I totally want to become a swordsman that wields a katana with anti-magic skills. I will be so AWESOME. Those boys in the village will finally bow to me! MUAHAHAHAHA! " She keeps laughing like a madman until I snap her out from her imagination.

It's going to be a bit hard to teach her swordsman skills but of course nothing in this world can stump me.

But

"But are you sure about this? Do you really want to become a swordsman?"

"Yes, I do. The Black Mage will definitely be shocked when I use this skill to take him down. "

And he did. He really did. But the way of my thinking really changed huh. I guess living with her might have changed my mind…

No. My objective will never change. I will still get my revenge on this world. But before that…

"Alright. But we don't have the equipment so we will have to go to the blacksmith's place to get the equipment that you will need in your training. After that, we will start your training."

"YAY! Thanks Wing."

"…My pleasure."

X

Kritias. It's been awhile since we last went there to get some equipment and medicines. To be honest, I'm quite impressed how fast Kritias catch up to the world since I seal Kritias in time to prevent the alliance and the people of Kritias working together when the former empress—Aria had visited there.

We've been living in the old wood house on the outskirts of Kritias so we rarely visit there because it's quite far away (by walking that is). I can just teleport to the Kritias Market in a blink of an eye, but I need to give Emily more exercise, so when we reach there is already six in the evening.

"Here's 5 million mesos for you. Go enjoy yourself while I go and fetch your weapons and other equipment. If you feel sleepy, go to the inn near the Market and rent a room for you to rest. I won't be back until all the stuff is been craft finished which might take days."

"DAYS?! How many things do you intend to craft until you need DAYS to finish?" She looked extremely surprised and shouted on my face. I just plug my ears with my fingers until she is done.

"All the equipment from your level to the highest level possible."

"I know that you being a powerful mage earn much money, but all those things would cost BILLIONS! Where'd you get all those money? Or are you just lying to me?" She muster** up her cheeks while finishing her last sentence.

I raise my hands up and point at the banner that is hanging on the entrance.

"What are you doing? Is this your way to say that you are lying?"

I keep pointing at the banner while seeing her eye to eye.

"What the hell are you pointing at…"

She finally turns to her back and sees what I am pointing at. The banner is in red color (background color) and gold color (words color). "Welcome to the 100th Rune Stone Festival!" is the words that are wrote on the banner.

"Th-That is The Rune Stone Festival sacred banner!"

The Rune Stone kingdom of Kritias celebrates it every 15 years when the sacred Rune Stones appear from the ground with many other rare minerals and herbs. The festival lasts six months until the appearance of the Rune Stones stops completely.

"Why didn't you tell me that The Rune Stone festival starts today?"

"I want to give you a surprise."

"Really?!"

"Not really. It's because…" I take out a flyer from my pocket and show it to her, "…of this."

She takes the flyer from my hand and starting to read it out loud.

"The Rune Stone Festival Battle Royale is held by Ranheim Academy. Registration starts from today until the day after tomorrow. Anyone can enter as long as the contestants level is above level 130. Contestants can sign up at the counter outside the Inn. Contestants are only allowed to enter the competition in solo. Contestants will not need to pay registration. Contestants will need to arrive The Coliseum before 8am and show your identity card to guard at the entrance which the clerk at the registration counter will give it to when you hand in your registration form or the guard will not let you go in. The preliminary round will start at 8.30am after briefing the contestants about the rules and we will NOT wait for the contestants that are late. Contestants that are late will be kicked out from the competition instantly. In the preliminary round, contestants will be divided into three groups and a single quest will be given to each group. The quest for the three groups is different. The first 15 contestants that finish the quest will be advancing to the semi-final. The semi-final round will consist 50 contestants which the five spots left empty from the preliminary round will be given to THE FIVE HEROES! OH MY TRANSCENDENT! THE HEROES WILL BE PARTICIPING THE CONTEST!"

I was shocked a bit by the sudden loud reading of Emily, also because that I didn't notice the part that the Heroes will be participating.

Emily continues to read the contents on the flyer, "From the semi-final rounds contestants must fight to the death. Are you crazy Wing? YOU want ME to enter a SLAUGHTERING competition?! You KNOW that I'll puke if I saw blood. Then-"

"Keep reading."

"Fine. A saw-blood-and-puke*** prevent pills will be given to contestants that will puke when they saw blood (since we all usually kill monsters that won't spill blood instead of humans). If contestants died in the battle, the Bishops will immediately end the fight and use Resurrection spell on the dead contestants. Now I feel much more safe. The semi-final round will be held three months after the preliminary rounds. After the semi-final, only ten contestants will advance to the final round. It will be held in the last month of The Rune Stone. The rules for the final round will be given after the end of the semi-final round. As for the prizes, contestants that are eliminated before the final round (in the semi-final round) will be given high experience points and expensive (and rare) potions. The items for the Grand prize, second prize, third prize, fourth prize and the fifth prize and will be revealed in the final round. The prize for the 6th till 10th spot contestants are 10 BILLION MESOS. Wow, the prizes for the competition are really attractive."

"That is because Kritias have many things that other parts of Maple World (and other worlds) don't have and so they are sold at high price. That is why Kritias is now the richest kingdom in all three worlds."

"Now for the rules. Contestants that are caught cheating will be eliminated from the competition and will request to help anything that is needed in the festival until it ends. They will also enter the blacklist of Kritias and cannot get near to The Coliseum which the competition is held until the competition has ended. Contestants are also advised NOT to use skills other than your skills, black magic spells are banned, cannot use cursed weapons, blah blah blah…."

She keeps on saying that until she read the last part.

"…And finally the winner of the contest will enter the alliance and FIGHT ALONG WITH THE HEROES AND THE NEW TRANSCENDENTS OF TIME AGAINST THE BLACK MAGE."

Her hands are shaking when she finished reading the contents of on the flyer.

"A chance…. to fight the Black Mage…." She lowered her head and her hands (it looks like she is going to rip the flyer apart) shaking like an earthquake.

Burst out in 3,2,1. (Covers ears)

"SO FRIGGIN' AWESOME!" Her eyes are literary shining as she holds up he flyer with both of her hands and looking up to the flyer.

She always overreact when she hear or see that there is a chance to beat the Black Mage. It's not because she hate the Black Mage but because she thought she could be famous and rich if she beat the Black Mage (her imagination is quite wild sometimes.)

After she talks to herself for a while (about what she will buy if she gets a reward by beating the Black Mage), she snaps back and asks me that is she really going to enter the contest.

"Of course. This is the chance to move up your level. You do want to defeat the Black Mage right?"

"I want to but I'm only 125 level, the requirement of the contest is 130 level."

"That is why I am going to get you a 130 level weapon that has a 5 level decrease stat to make you look like you are 130 level and sneak you in."

"But….."

"Or you can spend the next 10 years training to reach 250 level and let other people defeat the Black Mage."

"Whatever you say, Master." She kneels down for the second time today in front of me.

"I'll go to Ardentmill now and place my orders for the equipment to Gere. You go and enjoy yourself in the festival. I'll bring our stuff to the Inn when I'm finished." I said to her when she stands up.

"Are we going to stay overnight in the Inn?"

"We will stay until the preliminary round ends. I'll be going right now."

When I turn my back to her, she was standing there making a sad expression. I feel that she has something to say, so I turn my head back and ask her. She smiles forcefully and say that I should go and do what I have to. She also say that she will enjoy the festival and I shouldn't worry her.

Since she says it that way, I turn my head back and start walking towards the portal of Ardentmill.

X

"Nack, give me all the things that are on the list here." As I hand over the list to him.

"No problem boss." He looks at the list for a while and take all the things on the list from his store and put it in a he give me the bag.

"That'll be 8 million mesos.****"

I take the money from my bag and give it to him.

"You are a dense one aren't you Wing?" Gere talks with me as he read through the list.

"…Pardon?"

"You said that she wanted to say something to you no? She must've been trying to ask you about going to the festival together." He starts to write something on a piece of paper at an incredible speed.

"…I don't think so."

"I've been around for a long time and I've seen many things including that cliché scene. Trust me Wing, I couldn't be more wrong."

"…Maybe."

"I know that you have been living in the shadows and doing some magic-related things since Emily died to forget your pain. Maybe you already forget how to try to understand people's feeling and open yourself to them. But the past is already a past. You can't do anything to change what has already been done. You still have a chance to do what you failed to do a long time ago. Stop drowning yourself in the pain of the past and move forward or you will regret it when you came to realize that you had lost everything again." He hand me the paper that he was writing when he finish writing.

"Here's the list of Rune Stones you might want to get if you want the stats on the equipment you asked me to craft. And one more thing Wing…" He put his hand on my shoulder and looks into my eye.

"Value what is in front of you right now. The girl's name is also Emily right? Take good care of her. Don't forget to bring her here to see me once ok? I also missed her." He laughs after finishing his sentence.

"…You'll need to wait a long time for that." I smile at him faintly.

"Being sarcasm eh? See you tomorrow, kid." He added 'kid' purposely.

"…See you tomorrow, Gere."

X

As soon as I left Ardentmill, a person with a black coat bump into me. He didn't say anything and continues to walk forward.

My eyes caught the symbol that is on the person's (coat) shoulder.

It is a crimson sun with an X in the middle of the sun.

It feels like I've I seen that symbol before. My heart starts to feel uneasy.

I quickly teleport back to the old wood house and walk into it.

After I put all the things we need into a bag, I walk towards the living/dining room.

I stop and look at the picture that I put on the table.

It's a picture of Emily and me standing outside the house. She was smiling happily in the picture.

I wonder how long can her smile lasts. I want to keep seeing that smile on her face.

The moment I step out from the house, I heard people screaming and it's coming from the Market.

"Shit-" I instantly teleport to the Market entrance. I saw many people running away from the center of the Market. I quickly run towards there since I can't use teleport in a place full of people.

"Please be safe, Emily."

At the same moment, back at the old wood person that is been observing Wing laugh couldn't wait to taste the despair of the Black Mage again. He turns back and walks into the dark forest and disappear. The black coat he was wearing has the same symbol that the person have in the Market on the back of his coat. The only difference is below the crimson sun symbol, there are two words written there in an ancient language.

Crimson Darkness.

* * *

*I'm not sure that is right or wrong. If it is wrong please do correct me.

**If you want to blame me for using the wrong word, just blame Google Translate.

***It refers to whoever that sees blood and will puke. (Hell, that is some nonsense English.)

**** I just randomly put a number since I didn't craft things that are above level 120 and I have no idea how much does the materials cost.

* * *

**Okay guys that is all for the first chapter. The reason that I use 'Spell 1' instead of chapter 1 is to identify who is using 'I' for the chapter.**

**Spell - Wing**

**Magic - Emily**

**Circle - Evan**

**And, of course, do forgive me if my English sucks.**

**The reason I write a story about Black Mage is because I believe that there is always a reason or a story behind a villain, even if he/she is a cold-blooded murderer.**

**In the next chapter I will be describing the appearance of Wing and Emily.**

**If you have any questions, feel free to ask me.**

**FYI, I seriously hope that the upload of the file will not mess up the words again.**

**Please review~~~**


	3. Meister 2: The past in the present

**H****i guys! (I already used to say 'guys' instead of reader cause that is already natural to me so do forgive me XD.)**

**Firstly, sorry for the super late update cause I got exam (PT3 Trial Exam) and I still need to study for the official PT3 exam.**

**Anyway, here's the description of how Wing and Emily look like~~**

**Wing: He is around 25 years old (at least that is the age he looks like).**

**He looks just like The White Mage (go Google it) but his hair is black.**

**He wears a black jacket with a pocket in front of it and with a hood.**

**He wears a black T-shirt under his jacket (just black color, nothing else.).**

**He wears a pair of black jean and a pair of black leather shoe with a pair of black color socks. (To make things shorter, anything he wears is black color.)**

**He also wears a pair of black (half) earring.**

**He is 180cm in height.**

**When he is working, he will wear a pair of black gloves to protect his hands.**

**Battle mode: His jacket turns into a black coat (like Dante's coat but black in color) with a hood (specially made, have an awesome stat. Imagine it yourself). His dual pistols (although I won't call that a pistol because it looks WAY much cooler than the pistols you saw on TV), Cyclone and Madman (kind of put the second name randomly), are tucked into his coat.**

**Emily: 15 years old.**

**She is around 150 cm tall.**

**Brown hair, Bob cut hairstyle. The hair that lay down on her forehead is tied up (like Mirajane).**

**Her eye pupil color is cyan.**

**She has a slim body.**

**She wears a light blue T-shirt with a bunny face drawing (the bunny's expression somehow can change with Emily according to how she feels) and a pair of short grey pants with a pair of T-shaped slipper (if you know what I mean).**

**B~C cup breast (I put this characteristic to make people easier to imagine)**

**At the end of their cross eyes have an arrow head.**

**That is pretty much how they look like. The weapon description will be explained in other chapters. If you think that they need more/fewer characteristics or some of the characteristics are weird, PM me or write it in your review.**

**I try to make it funny but for some reasons I can't make it funny.**

**Enjoy the story~~~**

* * *

Kritias.

A country that resurface to the world five years ago without any warning to complete the Black Mage's plan.

The Black Mage fuses the King of Kritias with his palace, Trueffet, together and turns them into Hekaton, a humongous monster.

Everything was in chaos after it happened. To make things worse, even the commanders started to attack Kritias every day. Although the members of the Alliance were able to make the commanders retreat, but they keep coming without an end and their forces increased in every attack.

Then, it all changed.

The Black Mage decided to destroy Kritias with his own hands in one go because it was starting to become a nuisance.

Everyone was dead.

The kingdom, everything was perished.

The scene five years ago now appeared in front of my eyes again.

Monsters appear instantly in the Market.

A Dark Cornian stands in front of me. When it saw me, it waves down its sword. When the sword almost reaches me, I close my eyes. I feel scared. But I know that He will appear. He always does and always will.

Just like he did five years ago.

Wing. The man that saved me five years ago from the hands of Black Mage just right before he tries to kill me.

He was powerful. He singlehandedly defeat the Black Mage, save the kingdom and resurrect every person that died in the country. Or at least that is what I was told after I woke up in the temporary medical tent. They say that he was hurt quite badly when he received a blow from the Black Mage to protect me.

They found him in the middle of the rubble, fainted and unconscious.

It was two days after I woke up that I thanked him for saving my life when he opened his eyes.

The first thing that come to my mind when I saw him, I thought,

"This big brother* looks so handsooooooome!"

He didn't say anything. He just looked at me, looked into my eyes. I can see it in his eyes that he has experienced a lot of pain and he was, happy when he saw me.

It seems that the townspeople knew him a long time ago. They knew him as "The Omni Master Wing"**. They said that he hid himself somewhere researching a way to bring his wife back to life. He 'accidentally' becomes The Omni Master while researching since he search and learned anything and everything that is ever recorded.

The first that he said to me was,

"Is your name…Emily?"

I was surprised when he said my name. Only the townspeople know my name.

"Do you… have a home?"

That was his second question.

I don't know how to answer his question so I just lay down my head.

I have a home, but it wasn't there anymore since a long time ago.

I think he knows the answer when he saw that I'm not saying anything. Then, he moves his lips again.

"You… Do you want to live with me? I can take care of you."

I was shocked when he said that. I can see that he wish me to say I agree in his eyes. I can somehow see (observe) what is a person (roughly) thinking through looking their eyes.

I thought for a while. To be honest, I was quite surprised that I need time to think about it because maybe, just maybe that this person can give me a 'home'.

"If you can teach me skills to fight the Black Mage and to protect other people, I will live with you."

"…If that's what you want, I shall give you what you want. But-"

"But what?" I was a bit panicked even though I told him that I would only live with him if he teaches me fighting skills. Somehow my heart tells me to believe this person even though I never saw him in my whole life.

"I will only teach you skills to fight starting from your fifteenth birthday. But before that, I'll train you and increase your physical abilities to prepare you for learning your skills. No exceptions. So, what will be your answer?"

That was not an easy question to answer. I wanted to learn skills to fight now. But my heart keeps telling to accept. In the end, I can't win my heart.

"…Fine. I guess it won't kill me to wait. I won't mind living with a handsome guy- What I mean is…"

He looked at me suspiciously.

"… Never mind that. Where are we going to live?"

"In the outskirts of Kritias-"

"WAIT!"

Is the Ranheim Academy professor - Beatrice, which shouted out that word.

"What are you planning Wing?"

"Don't say my name like you know me." He said coldly.

"You have disappeared for so long and not to mention that you have been conducting magic experiments! And now you just asked a girl you saved which I think that she never saw you before in her life out of blue to live with you?! Isn't that too suspicious, right everyone?"

Everyone started to nod their heads and whisper to each other. The situation is not looking good. Although I know that she is just trying to protect me, but I don't think he is dangerous. That's when I decided to speak up.

"Ehm. Everyone, please listen to me."

The people inside the tent stopped talking and look at me.

"I decide to live with him."

Everyone's face has a 'surprise' word wrote on their face.

"Emily, you do hear what I just said right? He is dangerous! He might do some horrible experiment on you-"

"Then so be it. If it wasn't for him, I wouldn't be standing here, arguing with you."

She became speechless. Everyone in the tent (sort of) agreed with me.

"So," I looked at him and asked, "When are we leaving?"

"If you have anything you want to bring along with you, meet me at the Market entrance in one hour."

"But your wounds haven't healed yet-"

"I'll just cast a healing spell on myself, no need to worry about me."

"… If you say so."

1 hour later.

I quickly stuffed all my things into my backpack and rushed to the entrance of the Market.

"You are 3 minutes late." He said it with a VERY unhappy face.

"It's jus 3 min-"

"I'll have you get rid of that habit or you can forget about learning skills from me."

"I-I'm sorry." I was late because I missed my house. But is not like I'm going to say that to him.

"… You might want to say goodbye to them." He pointed the people that were standing quite far behind me.

"Remember to come back once in a while ok?" Beatrice was worry about me. She still thinks that Wing is going to experiment on me.

"I'll take her back every 6 months to see you people to prevent you people from SUSPECTING me about experimenting on Emily."

After the whole cliché goodbye scene, we went to the old wood house. The first thing that came to my head is: Is this house going to fall when I'm asleep?

Wing said that the house was safe, but I'm not sure about that when I opened the door and the ceiling makes some creaking sounds.

Now, where was I?

Oh right, the Dark Cornian was about the cut me in half and I closed my eyes.

When I open my eyes again, Wing is standing in front of me, wearing his black coat while both his hands are gripping a gun. The Dark Cornian fell instantly as he shoot two black magic bullets piercing through the Dark Cornian. But seriously, I don't like the way the items drop from a dragon type monster.

"Are you okay Emily?" Wing turns to his back and asks me. He lands out his hand and I grab it tightly to get my feet back on the ground.

"I'm fine."

"Is that so? Then is time to clean up the mess." He walks forward a bit and starts using his skill to take down the remaining monsters.

"**Dual gear: Scatter.**" He shoots a row a bullet instantly and takes down the monsters that are in front of him. He keeps running forward and keeps attacking any monsters that are in his sight.

When he eliminates all the monsters, a Leviathan appears! That doesn't make any sense. The appearance of any monsters in this area is definitely summoned by someone. I quickly look around and I saw a person in a black robe standing on the roof of one of the buildings grinning evilly.

"**Dual Gear Finale: Firework.**" When I look back, Wing put the butt*** of his guns back to back and shoots six black arrow bullet in a row. After the bullets go through Leviathan, the black arrow bullets turn into beautiful fireworks. He turns his guns for a few circles and tucks them inside his coat. Then the coat disappears. He walks towards me and stand beside me, watching the fireworks.

"This is the firework you have always wanted to see, right?" He still remembers. I thought that he had already forgotten that I told him I never saw a firework before and I just want to see it once.

"Emily, I have something to say." Wing looks at me eye to eye.

"What is it?"

"The Rune Stone Festival, I guess we'll go together." His face appears a very faint red line.

I was a bit shocked at first since he is quite dense, but then I want to tease him a bit. (I doubt that he notices that I want to invite him so I'm guessing that old man Gere is helping me, again.)

"Won't you embarrass asking a girl for a date in the middle of the crowd?" I giggled when I finish my sentence.

"Huh? What do you mean by that…"He just realizes that people are watching us because he just kicked those monsters butt. Oh my, his face completely turns red. He quickly grabs my hand and starts to run towards the festival. That was fun. He rarely shows his expression. I have to thank Gere for this one.

"Achoo! Is someone talking about me?" The old man suddenly sneezed.

After that, we spend that night enjoying ourselves in the festival.

"Emily, I'll only accompany you for the next two days in the night because the competition is near. While in the day time, I'll go find those Rune Stones while you work on your skills." He says it to me when we reach the entrance of the Inn.

"What?! Didn't you say you are going to teach my battle skills?"

"I'll give you the books that have my hologram recording about swordsmanship. It's better if you create your own style than teaching you to create one."

"But…"

"I'll give you some return scrolls to the house and to the Market. My books about swordsmanship are located in the underground storage sector 10, row 1 to 5. And don't forget to register your name tomorrow at the counter."

I bow down my head because I don't want to let him see me enduring my tears****. I really want him to stay by my side (and teach me). Suddenly, he pats my head. I raise my head up with tears in my eyes.

"Don't be sad Emily. I know how you feel, but you need to grow stronger and braver. You are not a little girl anymore. I won't die that easily because you need me right? Just go back to your room and get some rest, okay?"

I nod my head. After that, I went to my room and sleep while Wing go and do his work. Maybe I was overreacting when he said he was going to leave and it's not like this is the first time he did it. It's just that, my parents just left me when I was 5. That day they say that they will come back early, but they didn't. I was waiting in the house for two days, without sleep or eat, just keep crying and wishing they come back. When the townspeople found me, I was half dead. After my parent's funeral, my heart was empty. I don't know what to do; don't know what to hope for. After a few days living in the Inn, I accidentally heard the conversations of the staff while passing by the kitchen. They say that my parents were killed by one of the commanders of the Black Mage. I was angry. I never felt so much hatred in my heart. I swore that one day I will kill Black Mage myself. Then the opportunity came. At first I closed my heart to Wing because I wasn't so sure what kind of person he is. But I slowly found out that he is really nice, although he is very strict sometimes, especially when it came to promises. I heard from the townspeople when I visit them three years ago that apparently that he broke his promise with his wife and had her killed.

He always didn't say anything about himself even if I force him to tell me. He always looked at me like he is seeing another person. Maybe I really look like his dead wife. One day, he said that he needs to go somewhere far and he told me I need to stay in the house. I was terrified. I kept crying and begging him no to go because I was afraid that he would disappear forever if he left. Then I realize that I had opened my heart to him, even though I keep telling myself not to because I will become too attached to him and I couldn't let him go.

He gave me a hug for the first time that day. I could feel his warmth and his love to me. I can feel that he doesn't want to leave me too. He told me that he will be back at 7 o'clock in the evening and if I clean my room while he is gone, he will give me a present. I want to show him that I am strong, so I said that I want a hair band as my present and if he is late he will have to serve meat in every Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Sunday's dinner. He tied a thread around his little finger and my little finger as prove for our promise.

I keep looking at the clock after he left. When the minute hand reaches 7:01, I started crying in front of the door. I was so afraid that maybe he died and I will be alone again. After a few seconds, the door opened and Wing walked into the house, with a small box on his left hand and a bag of meat on his right hand. I stopped crying for a moment.

"I guess we've going to have meat for dinner tonight since today is Friday right?" His smile to me is saying that he was sorry that he couldn't keep his promise although he keeps telling me not to break promises. I hugged him tightly and started crying loudly. He kneel down and hug me back.

That night after dinner, he gave me the hair band that I wanted after he saw how clean my room is. He helped me tie my hair that is lying down on my forehead. We watched the illuminated stars hanging in the sky together. He also said story to me that I've never heard before.

From that day onwards, I wasn't scared if he says that he needs to go somewhere else, even if he won't come back for days, but I still cry because I will miss him, just like today.

I guess that is enough flashback for today. It's time to sleep.

The next day.

I'll just skip the usual stuff you do when you wake up. After registering my name at the counter, I head back to the old house via returning scrolls. I open the door to the underground storage which Wing bring me there once before.

I have to say, those dust from opening the door are already making me uncomfortable, I can't imagine how dusty will it be when I'm inside the storage. (By the way, the door is located beside the house on the ground covered by camouflage grass.)

I am very impressed when I walked down to the storage and not seeing a single dust on the bookshelves. The storage is what they call 'a sea of books'. It's almost as large as two football field (you are wrong if you think that I never saw a football field before, I once went to Maple High School. I have to say it's a weird experience because I saw monsters reading a book and talking in elf language#) and the bookshelves are at least four meter high.

I walk towards sector ten and I found the books I want in row 1 to 5 (count from the bottom to the top). I use gravity magic to carry those entire books back to the surface.

"Let's start with this one 'The beginning of Swordsman.'" I carefully choose a book from the pile of books I took. When I open the book, I was surprised when a holographic Wing appears from the book. But Wing looks younger and he has white hair while wearing a white robe. I never saw Wing wears that kind of clothes. Now that I remember that he had mentioned before that he is a very different person back then when his wife is still alive.

"So um, thank you for opening this book, I really appreciated because no one ever reads them. I thought that it will be a bestseller book but for some reasons it didn't." It's because they don't need to read books to learn skills since they have an instructor.

"If you opened this book, it also means that you don't have an instructor. What a poor person,"… Now I know why no one wants to buy the book because I really want to wipe that smirk out from his face. I guess he REALLY is a different person back then, the difference is like heaven and earth.

"Well let's get started shall we?"

One thousand years later.

"I will never EVER listen to those recordings again." I remind myself. Although it was only one hour, but I can't stand him. I can't BELIEVE he is Wing and it also makes me wonder how can he even get himself a wife? Never mind that, it seems that the books only have recordings in it, it doesn't have a single damn word.

I took the katana Wing gave me this morning for my training from my backpack. It's a red katana. When I swing the katana after I pulled it from its sheath, it doesn't feel very comfortable. It's light, but something doesn't feel right.

When I am thinking what skill I should make, I remembered a technique Wing once taught me.

I close my eyes and start calling the power resides in me. I can slowly feel the power covering my entire body. I can sense that the power is flowing towards the katana. I slowly raise up my katana by using both of my hands until it reaches the position beside my right ear. I concentrate really hard to let my power keep flowing into the katana. After I stabilize the power covering the katana, I open my eyes and I swing my arms as hard as I can.

X

"Emily, do you ever heard of a story call 'The Legend of Cross Children'?"

"No. Is this another story telling? I'm getting a bit old for that."

"Says the girl that just cries like a baby a few moments ago."

"You…! Don't tease me like that Wing! You know that I was really scared…"

"Alright, I'm sorry. That was only a joke. So, do you want to listen to the story?"

"If it's interesting."

"…"

"Okay. I want to hear the story."

"A long time ago, before the Transcendents exist, there are two children with a cross on both of their eyes appear as the creators of this world. They use a power call 'Exver' to create this world. They also use Exver to create magic and spread it across the world. Since Exver is used to create magic, it also can neutralize magic, it is also called as 'Anti-Magic'. "

"Isn't that what Kritias have the most now? Those 'Anti-Magic Stone's."

"Correct. Kritias was the first home of The Cross Children. The land itself absorb their power when the use it. Since they were immortals so they will always look like a child. Thus, they were known as 'The Cross Children'. Although they use Exver but they also use magic to create and wield all kinds of magic spells."

"This is not a story. You are just explaining some history."

"This is important Emily. You must not remember this as any other stories or legends but as a truth."

"Yeah, yeah. I heard you."

"The most important is this so listen carefully. Many years later after The Cross Children created the world, the world has turn from nothingness into a world full of life, harmony and peace between humans and magical creatures. That is until one day, everything changes."

"Is it the Black Mage?"

"No, Emily. The Black Mage exist hundreds of years later from that story. A man name 'Despair' suddenly appeared. He crushed every hope there is and plunged the world into chaos to collect despair for the need of his hunger. War happen everywhere. There was no light, only darkness remains. The Cross Children tried to stop him and they succeed. But Despair managed to steal part of their powers. Later then, Despair was defeated and they took their powers back. What The Cross Children didn't know is the power that was stolen from them has been cursed. Since then, poverty happens everywhere they went. They were blamed for what happened and were killed mercilessly by the people of Maple World."

"How could they do that? The Cross Children saved them from Despair right? It's not their fault!"

"I know. But they didn't do it intentionally. They were controlled by Despair after he came back for revenge. Just when Despair thought he had won, The Cross Children use their last breath to seal him along with the memories of Maplers about them into an abyss. But Despair was destined to rise again, so The Cross Children decided to reincarnate into humans to protect the seal while preserving their powers in their souls. After The Cross Children died, three Transcendents were born from their body, they were the Transcendents of Time, Life, and Light."

"How can you proof that The Cross Children exist. You said that the memories about them were sealed with Despair, then how can you know? Can you prove they exist? Can you?"

"I can, by doing this."

Wing suddenly uses his right hand to cover my eyes for a while. When he removes his hands from my eyes, a mirror appeared in front of me. I was so shocked that I couldn't say a word because, in the mirror, both of my eyes became a blue cross!

"This…this is…"

"See my eyes."

"W-What?"

"Just look at it."

I raised my head up and I saw Wing's eyes also turned into a cross! But the color of his cross is black in color.

"Now, do you still have any doubt about the story?"

"But I still don't understand-"

"I don't understand either. All those years of researching and this story is all I found. But I managed to learn and use the 'Exver' myself. It wasn't easy though."

He covers my eyes again and it went back to normal.

"Tomorrow I'll be teaching you how to use this power. You can think this as your pre-battle training."

"Thanks Wing!"

"Don't get too excited. Tomorrow's training is going to be hellish."

X

_Master, I don't think this is a good idea._

"Relax, she is not going to found out about us."

_We should really leave before she finds us Master._

"Just let me stick around a bit longer and see what will happen next."

He was just passing through the forest when he saw a girl gripping her katana. Initially, he thought it was nothing. But suddenly a blue color aura covers up her entire body slowly. Then, he saw the blue aura starting to gather on her katana, so he decides to see what will happen next.

_Master…_

"Wait for it, something is going to happen soon. I can feel it in the air."

He was right. The girl suddenly swings her katana and creates a blue shockwave that cuts through a few trees down in front of her instantly.

"Wow! Did you see that?!"

_Master, you shouldn't talk so loud or she will hear us._

"Right, right. Hey, who is that person? I didn't saw him a few seconds ago." He points at the person that keeps walking towards the girl.

_Master, that person…_

"Yeah, I know. He is no ordinary person. He is giving off an incredibly powerful aura. I've got to stay and see what will happen next. This ought to be something."

X

"That was actually pretty good. But, unfortunately, that half-baked skill will get you killed instantly on the battlefield."

A teenager with white silver hair suddenly pops out of nowhere when I turn around to drink some water. I quickly stand on my guard to prepare what will happen next.

"Who are you?"

"That is rude you know? I mean, asking people's name without saying your own name first. Well, that's not the point. I'm just a person passing through the forest and I happen to see what you are doing, so I decide to give you some advice about swordsmanship. Apparently you aren't interested in studying swordsmanship with books."

I wasn't listening what he was saying because my attention was drawn by the way he ties his hair.

"…is that a ponytail?"

"THIS IS NOT A PONYTAIL DAMMIT!" He suddenly shouts out that sentence out of rage.

"Then what is it?" Luckily I had my ears closed when he shouted or I'll be having a temporary deafness.

"This is called 'Tie My Hair Likes A Ponytail But It's Actually Not Because It Isn't As Long As Ponytail' hairstyle." He is doing a 'Thumbs Up and Teeth Shine' pose after he finished his sentence.

"Uh, okay?" My expression is definitely F6^.

"Let's get back to the topic shall we? As I was saying, I'm going to give you some advice about swordsmanship. Firstly-"

"Why should I listen to you when I can just learn it myself? Plus, I don't take advice from a stranger. So if you may, please leave."

"…I'm afraid I'll have to make you listen." He suddenly snaps his finger. (Without Emily knowing, he has changed her thought from 'Not Listening' to 'Won't kill me if I do listen')

"I guess it won't kill me to listen to your advice."

"Good! So firstly, you'll need a suitable weapon. Not powerful, but suitable. Although your guardian, Wing has been searching for materials to craft nice katanas, but it will be a problem if you keep changing your weapon."

"Is that so? Wait! How you'd know-"

"I know him, in a way. I also know you quite well, Azure Cross Child." He grins faintly at me.

"You…!"

"Don't be surprised, you could say that I have been observing both of you for a period of time. But who cares anyway, it's not like I'm a stalker. So, do you still want to learn about swordsmanship?"

It seems he didn't mean any harm (although he did say he was observing us). He probably can attack us any time he wants, but he didn't do it proves that he isn't trying to do anything. Maybe he really wants to teach me about swordsmanship. I guess I'll keep listening to what he is going to say.

So I nod my head.

"Fantastic! Now, continue to what I just saying. Although there are many levels of katanas and logically one will equip a weapon that is near to his or her level, but it is not really a good choice, especially you."

"Why?"

"Because you will need to adjust yourself to suit with your weapon. Even though it is still katana, but every katana has their unique 'characteristics'. You Exver won't adapt to new weapons so quickly and not every katana can withstand the power of Exver. That is why you should ask Wing to craft you a one-of-a-kind katana that ONLY suites you. And when he does, use this on the weapon."

He throws an item to me. When I catch it, I saw what it is. It seems like it was some sort of Rune Stone, but it is in diamond shape instead the shape of an ore. The rainbow looking liquid/mana inside the stone keeps whirling inside the stone.

"That is a stat absorber stone. Its whereabouts from where I found it is a secret. After you obtain your most suitable katana, put the stone on it. Then your katana will be able to absorb any katanas stat. This way, you can reduce the time to get used to a new katana."

"I guess I should thank you."

"Then I guess I should say you're welcome. On to the next topic, you need to give a name to your skills, as well as your katana. It can greatly increase your damage if you want to say it that way."

"How can a name affect my damage?"

"No, No, No. A NAME is important. Tell me, if you don't have a name, how are people going to call you when they want to? How will people know who are you?"

"They can just call me 'Wing's adopted child' or something like that-"

"That is EXACTLY what I am talking about. If he doesn't have a name, then how are people going to call you? Even if it's just a nickname, it is still a name."

"…"

"A name is the core of the existence of something or someone. Without a name, that something or someone doesn't exist. Do you get it?"

"…Yes."

"Giving your skills a name, however, is another matter. Giving your skills, a name is to let you project your skills more easily. Now, try using the skills you just use again, but this time shout out your skill name."

Hmm. What name should I give that skill? Ah! How about this name?

I once again stand in the same stance. But this time, I shout out the skill name first.

"Air Slash!" My Exver instantly flows from my heart to my katana and covers it the moment I swing my weapon. A blue shockwave was created and fly towards the forest while cutting down the trees.

"Compare to when you didn't use a name for your skill, this time your Exver flows even faster, create a faster and stronger shockwave."

"It really is stronger."

"Of course it is. Now you need to create a name for your battle style to unite all your skills. Through this, people will know who you are when you say it out loud. You can't just randomly name your skills without a style because people will think that you are just a copycat. That is the end of my advice."

"I have to thank you for your teaching despite the fact that you just came out of nowhere while knowing me and Wing."

"Well, this is destiny. But before I go, I have something to tell you. Whatever I tell you, you must not move an inch until I leave, okay?"

So I nod my head again.

"There is a stalker hiding in a tree, the third tree to your left if you are facing South from where you are standing. See ya!"

He just disappears. Wait, who is 'he'? Am I talking to someone just now? It's so weird, I can't remember who he is, but I remember the things that he taught me. That's right! The stalker!

I stop trying to remember who that person is and start to think how to kick the stalker's butt. Let's see, since my Exver is blue in color, I think I should call my style "The Azure Style". My target is at the tree behind me, so I think I should use…

"What just happen? I swear that someone was talking to her just now, but I can't remember a thing about that person. And I didn't even hear what they are saying!"

_Master, maybe it's a memory eraser spell._

"But I don't feel any magic that was used to activate a spell."

_You won't remember it if your memory got erased now would you Master?_

"Don't talk to me like that! Wait, what is that girl doing now?"

When he is trying to focus to see what is she doing,

"**Azure One Sword Style: Back Flip Slash!**"

I use my Exver to attach the katana to my leg when my leg is in the air while I am doing a back flip and I wave my feet down very hard to release a shockwave. I release the katana as soon as the shockwave was created. When I land on the ground, I grab my katana without missing it and instantly put into its sheath.

The shockwave directly cut the tree into half. The person that is hiding in the tree falls down on the ground.

I sprint towards the stalker and stand in front of him, I couldn't see his face because he is doing a dog stance^* and he is facing down while breathing heavily.

"Why are you stalking me, stalker?"

He suddenly stops breathing for a moment. Then he stands up. My jaw almost drops to the ground when I see his face.

"Hello miss. I'm just hiding in that tree to see what you are doing because your skill attracted me. And of course I am NOT a stalker. (I can just use magic if I want to stalk you)"

"You…You…You're Evan!"

"Oh? So you know me?" He starts to wipe away the dirt on his shirt.

"O-Of course I know! Who doesn't know that in the MAPLE Heroes you are the most handsome-

I mean, The Dragon Master Evan of the MAPLE Heroes."

"Handsome? I thought Phantom is better looking and charming than me." He heard what I said, I am sooooo embarrassed right now.

"What is your name miss?"

"M-My name is Emily."

"Emily huh? What a nice name. You live alone?"

"N-No. I live with my savior, but he is now on an errand."

"Savior?"

"He saved me from the Black Mage and adopted me."

"He saved you from the Black Mage? It can't be…?! Is your savior's name Wing?!"

"How'd you know that?"

"Of course I know!" He suddenly got excited and grabs both of my shoulders. I can feel my cheeks are burning.

"He was THE only one that ever manage to defeat the Black Mage alone. Not to mention, he got TONs of knowledge inside his brain which he kept for so many years. Luminous thought he was suspicious, but he was absolutely wrong. I did hear that Wing was fighting the Black Mage to save a girl, but I didn't expect to see her here."

"Well…I…err…"

"I got to go now so hope we meet again!" He didn't let me finish my sentence (which I'm glad because I have no idea what to say.)

"Mir!"

_Yes, Master._

A large shadow suddenly flies out from the forest and land behind us. It then lay down on the ground.

It's…It's…It's… Mir! The last Onyx Dragon in existence! My eyes are shining like stars. Evan walks toward Mir and prepares to jump up to Mir's back.

"Before I go I have something to ask you, Emily?" He turns around and look at me.

"W-What is it?"

"The blue color that covers up your body, what is it? It's clearly those aren't mana." His blue eyes are looking into my eyes.

"I will tell you,"

Evan starts to listen carefully.

"If you can defeat me in The Rune Stone Battle Royale."

"Ho ho. A challenge letter eh? Alright, I'll be waiting for you, Emily."

He jumps onto the dragon's back and it flies to the sky in an instant. Then it flies out from my sight in a blink of an eye.

I zone out a bit when I saw how awesome Mir fly to the sky. I snap back when I realize that he saw my power. I wish he won't tell anyone about it or it will become a major problem. By the way, the summer clothes he was wearing makes him look so hot. My drool starts to run down again when I thought of it.

When I try to pull out my katana, I notice that the blade has shattered into pieces.

"I guess that person was right, not any sword can withstand the power of Exver." I talk to myself as I walk back to the house.

X

_Master, are you still thinking about what is her mysterious power?_

"…sort of. I don't think is a coincidence though."

_In what aspect Master?_

"I did say that I believe in Wing, but he is still quite suspicious. I'm not saying he might be on the dark side, but it's weird for someone as powerful as him exist and only show up on that day for the last 400 years. I don't doubt the fact that he found a way to gain immortality."

_Your point being, Master?_

"I'm saying he doesn't show up that day to save Kritias but to save that specific girl. I'm pretty sure that he didn't save her for her power."

_So what are you going to do Master?_

"I don't want to expose her mysterious power to the public because it might cause an uproar. I guess I'll do some research about her power first. There goes for you too, Mir. Don't tell anyone about this matter."

_As you wish, Master._

Evan starts to think what he is going to do later, but his thought fly back to the day he arrives Kritias with the Alliance to have a meeting with the Queen.

X

"Thank you all for coming. Today I held a meeting to introduce you all a new ally that will fight along with us against the Black Mage."

The instructors and the Heroes are all sitting around the table. Queen Cygnus sits at the end of the table while her advisor—Neinheart and her Knights are standing beside her. At the other end is Queen Ione, the queen of Kritias and her three main commanders.

"You call us all the way here JUST to introduce us a newcomer? This is a waste of time, I'm out of here." Phantom stands up as he speaks.

"Phantom, please sit down. It is rude to leave the meeting before it even starts." Cygnus's soothing voice made Phantom sits back to his chair.

"…If you say so."

"Oh, my. The Lady Killer just got 'killed' by a lady. How ironic." Aran took the chance to mock Phantom.

"Say it again and I will-"

"Stop it. We aren't here to fight. I humbly apologize for the acts of my comrade, Queen Ione." Mercedes apologize as she speaks as the Queen of Elves.

"…"Luminous didn't say a word since he arrives at the meeting room.

"Should we get the meeting move on?" Evan wants to go to the festival with Mir ASAP.

"Of course. This ally appears five years ago after the attack of 'That Day'. Although we never meet him in person before, but he has given us a vast amount of intelligence on the Black Mage's army."

He sends us the information through vocal message magic. The jar that contains his recording always appears on my work desk every time before an attack hits. Even though we never see his face, but we know his name.

Initially, my commanders are suspicious of this person call 'Ray' that sends all those messages because we never know of this person. But his information are absolutely correct every time. So we have no reason to doubt him."

"I still don't understand why are we here if you never saw this person before." Said Claudine, leader of the Resistance.

"Since you said that this person never shows his face before for the last five years, what reason do you have to believe that he will appear?" Questioned Athena Pierce, leader of the Explorers.

"Because this time he agrees to make his appearance in this meeting."

Suddenly, the door was knocked a few times.

"This must be him. Let us welcome our new ally."

The door opened slowly.

* * *

***Refer to the Chinese term.**

**** The Omni Master means a person that mastered every single skill in existence. (In this story)**

*****I don't mean your a55. I check the internet and it says "The end of the handle of a gun."**

******It's Google Translate's fault if it's wrong.**

**#I once saw it on the internet about elf language being English. Maybe I'm wrong but I want to keep it that way.**

**^Go check internet for "Maplestory Facial Expressions" if you don't know what I mean.**

**^*Not very sure about this phrase, but it means he is kneeling like a dog.**

* * *

**Okay, that is all for this chapter. I know this chapter is longer than the last one so it takes a longer time to update (excuse). So can you guys predict what will happen next?**

**The character 'Ray' is actually a character from my novel, but that's all I can tell you XD. I'm not actually very good at handling the contents of the chapter so sometimes the chapters might be very long or short.**

**I think I'll write some special chapters for explaining some things or adding some past scenes.**

**Again my grammars suck so don't complain too much. Some part may be a bit weird because I can't find suitable words/phrase/description to, well, describe things or scenes.**

**Now for some spoiler~~~ There is a traitor inside the Maple Alliance! (Only include characters in Maple World.) Can you guess who this person is?**

**Please review~~~**


	4. Grimoire 3:This is what a hero do

**Sorry for the super f**king late update. Like I mention in my profile, I got** **'doesn't have passion to write a story for more than 3 chapters' syndrome so if this really get published, it means I have finally breakthrough this annoying syndrome.**

**Note:I know that there is already a Fairy NPC call "Wing", just ignore it because the Fairy "Wing" is not going to show up in this story.**

**About Evan, I try to make him a kinda funny character since he is a teenager and I am too myself, so I hope that I will succeed in making Evan looks more interesting. **

**By the way, I wish that I can mix Chinese in it but it'll kinda mess up so I drop the idea. But in the future maybe I'll add some Chinese words in it if I really need to.**

**Anyway, enjoy the chapter~~**

* * *

"People are afraid of what they don't understand."

That was the first time Freud appears in my dream.

"They always do and they always will."

He told me those two sentences before _that day._

The day Kritias appears.

The game changed completely after Kritias appeared.

I was sent to investigate Kritias. When I arrived there, I agreed with Freud's words.

The Frozen weapons almost killed me when I was too frightened to do anything.

Luckily Mir was able to drag me away.

After I found Queen Ione and know that Kritias is the last piece to Black Mage's plan, I went back to Ereve immediately.

Then, _it_ happened.

When I arrived at Kritias for the second time, everything was destroyed.

Oh, and one more thing, I lied to Emily. Lie about what you may ask, well it's kinda shocking.

I DIDN'T hear the battle between Wing and Black Mage from other people because I was there to witness the whole thing.

The battle was overwhelming. I saw the battle between the original heroes and the Black Mage in Grand Athenaeum. But it is nothing compare to when Wing is fighting against the Black Mage.

The battle lasts for an hour. What is even amazing is that while Wing is battling, he still can resurrects the dead citizens and move their body outside the battlefield. After Wing land his final blow, the Black Mage retreats and said that he will remember this.

A few seconds after Black Mage left, Wing suddenly turns his head to the direction I was hiding. I was scared that he was going to do something to me but all he did is point at a house in rubble and he fainted.

I came out from the place I hide and I ran towards him. Although he fainted but he looks pretty unharmed. Then I went to look at the direction he pointed. I saw a girl lying on the rubble of a house. Well at that time I didn't know her name is Emily, so this part I didn't lie.

I carry her to an open space and I let her lying on the ground. After that, I set up a Recovery Aura there to heal her. When the reinforcements arrives, well, since there is no enemy left to fight with, so we carry all the injured civilians to the nearest temporary recovery camp located at the army camp (all three of them.)

Then I set up Recovery Aura at those camps, carrying people all night long, starving until the next morning because I can't find any food, bla bla bla. And for some reasons I forgot to carry Wing to the recovery camp.

After that I got busy with other errands sent by Neinheart (which I think he is abusing me to do random jobs just because I'm a hero and because I'm a kid.) and I didn't have time to go to Kritias, until know. Five years passed quickly. Time flies.

Now then, let's get back to the meeting room where people are making either a F6 or a F3 expression.

X

"Is this supposed to be a joke?" I could feel that Phantom was furious since I'm seeing his anger aura surrounding his body going wild. Well, it is understandable because today he was suppose to spend the night besides Aria's grave.

"My queen, I found a bottle outside the room, I think it is from _that_ person." The soldier that opened the door said while he is grabbing a transparent glass bottle which has smoke inside it. Wait, smoke?

"So it seems that I am not the only liar that is in this room. Now, if you excuse me, I would like to leave this bullshit meeting. Have fun listening to voice that you don't know who he is or what he is." He then use To The Sky and return to his ship. I never actually saw Phantom acting like that since he was always cool, dashing and charming.

Queen Ione stayed silent for a while and sighed.

"Open the bottle, soldier."

"Yes, my queen." The soldier opened the bottle and a voice came out.

"Testing 1 2 3. Man, this is so troublesome. Can I not do this? This week's Weekly Shonen Magazine is released today y'know? I don't want to miss it again." What the hell is he talking about? (Sweat)

Another voice came out.

"Will it kill you to JUST SAY A FEW FREAKING SENTENCES?! Don't you dare finish the message with some half assed stuff or you can forget go to the festival and have a $# %&amp;."

Wait, what was the last word?

"Alright, for the sake of $# %&amp;, I shall put my best in recording this message."

Seriously, what the hell is that word?

"Well, everyone knows what I mean right? You all would do the same when the time is right."

No, I do not know what you mean. Why is everyone nodding their head, even the queens?! Seriously?! Am I the only that doesn't what the **** he is saying?

"Well let's get to the point. The reason that I didn't come is because…

…I was embarrassed."

What the hell?!

"Do you see my face? Just thinking of meeting so many important people is making me embarrass."

F7, dude we can't see your face.

"Alright, time to get serious. I didn't come because I can't. I have to keep my identity confidential so that the people that I am chasing don't get a head start in escaping from me.

Someone is pulling the strings in the shadow. Although they haven't made a move until now but I think that they can't and they won't wait any longer. I know that they are planning to do something big on the final round of the Battle Royale.

All the incidents that will happen for the next six months and for the past three years are NOT related to the Black Mage or the Black Wing in any way."

What?

People in the room starts to questioning about his statements.

"How would he knows what will happen in the next six months? More importantly, if the attacks for the past three years aren't from the Black Wings then, who did?" Queen Cygnus asked.

"An ancient and extremely dangerous organization that was formed without anyone knowing its existence—**Crimson Darkness**."

Everyone in the room was shocked.

"Th-This is supposed to be a recording, right? Then how did he know what Cygnus is saying?" Mercedes asked.

"That is because-"

"—I can predict the future."

! (Only my eyes are turning Ray (as in the expression). I don't understand why everyone got paranoid.)

"I see you all are getting a bit nervous. Now, for the question you all wanted to ask."

"What is the Crimson Darkness, right?" I decide to speak up.

"Right. Wow, I didn't think _The_ Evan's voice is this low. Must've been the puberty."

I didn't know what to say so I just kept quite.

"The Crimson Darkness, don't waste your time to find them and I also won't tell you anything about them."

"B-But why?"

"Cuz that's my problem to solve, not yours kid. The Alliance should protect the city but don't try to butt in and start investigating things on your own. If you go too far, you won't even have your corpse left to bury."

Everyone stayed silence out of shock and fear.

"The organization will ONLY attack Kritias, especially during the festival so you all better keep your guards up. For the record, you can't catch any of the Crimson Darkness's members. Don't ask how and don't ask why. To be frank, I was warned at first NOT to contact you and give you the information from five years ago. The Alliance was supposed to face these threats unknowingly but things have changed. This is no longer your problem to solve. Till next time fellows."

The smoke inside the bottle disappears after he finished his sentence.

"…"

Can someone just say a freaking thing already? I still want to go to the festival with Mir.

"That is the end for this meeting. Parma, please send our guests to their rooms. We will discuss about the security measures to prevent this, Crimson Darkness attack our country." She stood up and starts walking towards the door on her right.

"Queen Ione, do you really believe what this man said?" Claudine asked.

"…" She stops walking.

"This man is too suspicious. Although he has helped you for the past five years but there is no guarantee that he is telling the truth all the time."Looks like Athena Pierce really don't believe this guy.

"…"

"Ione, do you really trust him?" Queen Cygnus looks really worried about Queen Ione.

"…I'm afraid my answer will disappoint you Cygnus." She looked at Queen Cygnus and gave her a bitter smile.

Well, after that most of the people didn't plan to go to the festival and decide to go straight to bed , because the journey to Kritias is actually quite tiring since the monsters around the area are all 190+ level and they spawn like a gunshot (not a very good metaphor).

X

_So, what happened in the meeting Master? What does the 'mysterious ally' looks like?_

"He didn't show up." I shrunk Mir into his 2nd growth size to prevent him destroying the festival with his large body.

"Man, these gyozas are delicious!"

_Don't ignore me Master. What really happened there? I can't get in because the guards there said that 'Pets cannot enter . Who do they think they are? I am not a pet! I am the great descendant of the Onyx race! I—_

"Here's a gyoza. Stop talking for 10 minutes."

_-will eat the gyoza first._

Then I put a gyoza on my palm and Mir eats it happily. What can I say? I like gyoza, so does he.

_**Evan.**_

What was that? Who is talking to me?

_**Listen, you've got to protect**__**Emily.**_

What? Who are you? Who the hell is Emily? Why should I protect this person while I still have three gyozas left to eat?

_**Who cares about your bloody gyoza?! Emily is the girl you saved 5 years ago on 'That Day', not to mention you like her the first time you met her and for God's sake she was not even awake.**_

How do you know about that?! I didn't even tell Mir about this!

_**Just shut the hell up and listen carefully. No questions.**_

"…stay until the preliminary round ends. I'll be going right now."

That voice sounds familiar.

"Wait Wing!"

!

"Can I have three plates of yakisoba?"

"…You can have four."

"Yes! Thanks Wing."

"Just don't lose your money. Take care of yourself Emily."

_**And there she is. She looks even prettier, no?**_

She looks even cuter than five years ago…Wait! I mean, she—

_**-Looks even better for you to seduce.**_

What?! NoNoNoNoNo. I just want to become her friend you know? Since I don't have many female friends…

_**Is Mercedes too old for you to chase after?**_

Well you can say it that way… Would you stop teasing me already?! (Crying while smiling.)

_**Just keep an eye on her. Don't forget to observe your surroundings, the Crimson Darkness might take their move.**_

! How did you know about this?

_**I am someone related to Ray. That is all I can say. By the way, if you plan to make some dirty move on Emily, don't forget to blame it on Mir after you got expose. Ta Ta!**_

…Is he a dirty old man? He definitely is! He must be! Dammit. Who is this guy? Never mind that, I better keep an eye on Emily first. Where is she? Let's see…

I turn back and I saw her standing in front of the yakisoba stall. She can eat four plates of it? I have to say that she got some rather big stomach capacity.

In fact, her stomach capacity is making my jaw drop right through hell. One plate of the yakisoba is like a mini mountain, I cannot imagine how is she going to finish all of it.

"Are you sure you can carry this? It's going to fall you know." The old lady in (or behind) the stall asked.

"It's better than holding four plates of it while put all of it in one plate." I see. For the moment I thought she is going to look like a pregnant woman when she finishes four mini mountains of yakisoba.

_Master, isn't she the girl that you saved five years ago on 'That Day'?_

Ten minutes passed already?

_Yes it has. Master, you still haven't finished your gyoza. Are you going to eat it or…?_

You can eat it. After you finished, check if there is anyone carrying negative energy nearby.

_Master, did something happen?_

Yeah, the girl I saved is called Emily. Apparently she is in danger right now. Someone just use telepathy to tell me that someone from a dangerous organization is targeting her. I'll explain later.

_Okay, I'll finish the gyoza first._

I keep following her after she finished her yakisoba (which she finished in just five minutes) while Mir uses his Dragon Sense to detect anyone with ominous aura.

The moment Emily stopped walking, I heard a loud scream.

_Master! I saw him! He is at the rooftop!_

Got It. Let's hurry—

_Master! He just summon high level monster throughout the whole Market!_

Shit! Then we'll just let him go this time. We gotta save the civilians first. The monsters aren't here yet, I guess Emily won't get hurt since it will take some time for the monsters to reach here. Let's go Mir!

_Right!_

I ran towards the closest monster (The monsters are all Dark Cornians) and use Magic Flare to prevent hurting the surrounding people while attacking them.

I ran around the Market and eliminate every Dark Cornian I saw instantly. It's lucky that I remember to bring a substitute wand in case of emergency. After defeat every Dark Cornian in my sight, I saw a person wearing a black coat standing on top of a building grinning evilly towards me. I quickly use Dragon Blink (I manage to remove the 'random' part of the teleportation. I can now use this as long range teleport, but only for places that I went or saw before or at a town area.) to teleport to the rooftop.

The person in black coat starts free running from building to building. Even with my Teleport, I still can't catch up to him. He (I guess that person is a male) has some pretty strong muscle. When I finally caught up to him, I grabbed his shoulder. He forcefully swing his arm and push me down to the that part of his coat get ripped off. When I try to catch him again, he was long gone.

_Master, even his existence disappear from the town and there is no trace of magic used by him to flee._

"Never mind that. Since Emily and the town is safe we should call it for the day. But I'm sure he will be back for round 2."

I looked at the piece of clothing on my hand, it was a crimson sun with a black 'X' in the middle of the sun.I looked up and stare at the starry sky.

"Crimson Darkness, huh. I've got a really bad feeling about this."

_Master,that sentence is too cliche to be cliche._

"Shut it!"

After that I made sure Emily return to the Inn safely and i went back to the palace. I was planning to tell the others about this matter but since it's already midnight and I don't want to wake everybody up from their sweet dreams (Checky keeps saying the candy it's too sweet in his dreams) so I thought it won't kill anyone to tell them about it the next day.

But of course I totally forget about it because the delicious breakfast mind wipe me and all I can think is the food. Poor Mir since he can only eat everybody's leftover cause his a 'Pet'. But he didn't say anything as long as he got something to eat. (and also because the food is like 5 star delicious, then again why would it have leftovers if it's so delicious? It's so confusing.)

After that, I went to check on Emily and I got discovered by her. I got to admit that she is pretty good because I even set up an Invisible Aura around me.

Well anyway, I promised to keep her secret and went back to the palace. I reported the "Crimson Darkness" attack to Queen Ione and handed in the piece of clothing I obtained. So she showed everyone the symbol of the evil organization and told them to stay alert for whoever has that symbol and must quickly alert the heroes.

A few days passed since then and it is time for-The Rune Stone Festival Battle Royale!

I'm very excited about this because I, I mean, WE (Heroes) got to see many different awesome skills that those contestants have that came from all 3 worlds. That's right, even Kaiser and Angelic Buster came, of course with the other Novas. Of course not to forget Hayato, Kanna and Ayame. The duo pirate, Jett and Zen is pretty cool too, although it's hard to imagine both of them are partners, but it's probably because their skills are so similar.

I got bored of waiting on my seat since there is still thirty minutes until it starts, so I made an illusion that I am still sitting there and I sneak out. It's pretty obvious that Luminous already saw through my illusion but he let me go, that's why sometimes I just like him. If it's Mercedes she will make sure I will not move an inch until the contest starts because we are the Heroes and we got to appreciate what people do for use by doing what they hope us to do and something like that.

To be honest I have a hard time trying to understand what she meant because I didn't save the world from the Black Mage, Frued and Afrien did, I'm just Frued's reincarnation and I didn't do anything great so far. Yes I saved many people but it is nothing compare to Frued's sacrifice and I don't feel the people of Maple World appreciate me that much. They think I'm just a brat, I'm nothing but Freud's reincarnation and only a substitution for the empty seat that Frued left. When the other Heroes look at me, they see Frued, not Evan; They see the Dragon King Afrien and not Mir. I know It's a little harsh to say things like these but it's the truth. But I don't want to disappoint them, I don't want to disappoint Freud, that's why I worked so hard, studying magic, learning non-magic combat skills. I want them to see me as The Dragon Master Evan and not who I was once.

Enough of my boring complaints, let's get back to reality.

So I sneak out and I am now teleporting myself to the front gate. Of course I cast an illusion spell to disguise myself and as for Mir, well I turn him into a wolf (since he wanted to try becoming a wolf so that Aran's wolf would talk to him) and we just walk around the entrance and see all the people that is entering the Coliseum.

"Hey, Evan!"

I immediately turn around to see who is calling my name (because I don't want to get caught and getting a lecture from Mercedes which lasts for hours) and I see Emily waving her hands to get my attention.

"Evan, why are you here? Aren't you suppose to be abopgfuidh..." I quickly walk towards her and cover her mouth. I grab her hands and run to the nearest resting room and lock the door considering the other contestants are watching us. Mir use the Invisible spell and fly to the sky since his real body couldn't fit in the door.

"Evan, aren't you suppose to be sitting at the VIP lounge? And why no one pay attention to you and Mir when you are walking around the entrance?"

When I was about to ask her how can she see through my illusion, then I remembered that she saw through me even with my invisible aura covering me.

I don't know what to say so I just stand there and looked at her.

Now when I look closely at her, she really is beautiful. Her cyan eyes reflects the purity of her soul and I simply can't take my sight out from her eyes. I am drawn to her eyes and it feels I will do anything for her if she asked.

"Is-Is there anything on my face?" Her face slowly turns into apple red.

"Yeah, I'm seeing an apple." I said soullessly.

"W-What?" She lower her head and said shyly.

I immediately snap back and correct my sentence.

"No,No. What I mean is your face is red like an apple since you are, well, blushing." What the hell am I saying?

A moment of awkward silence. Dammit, why am I acting like this?

"To all participants, please gather at the center of the Coliseum for briefing."

"It's your call. I gotta go back to my seat or it's going to be troublesome. Amaze me with your skills, Emily."

I smile at her and teleport back to my seat.

"Evan...was so close to me." Said Emily to herself.

She shake her head for a few times and slap her self on her cheek to clear her mind and cool down. She stands up and open the door.

"You can do this Emily." She said to herself.

X

"Finally back, huh?" The first thing I heard from Mercedes when I deactivate my illusion and sit perfectly on my chair (which is, by the way, only takes a split second.)

I quickly lower my head because I don't want to face her wrath.

"You're gonna tell me where did you go or I'm going to make you say it."

I start sweating on my head and I feel like I am going to receive a death punishment.

"SO! Where did you go..."

I swallow my saliva down to my throat and close my eyes, readying for the worst to come.

"...Phantom?"

I was like F6 for a moment to get what the hell just happened.

"You wanna tell me where did you go for the last few days or-"

"Worrying about things will make you old, my queen." He smile softly towards Mercedes. Mercedes pout at him with an annoyed face and sit down.

"Now for all contestants, in the preliminary round, will be separated into three sections which is sort by your levels. For the lowest level section ,'Charlie', the contestants will have to defeat 500 monsters, that is obviously not going to be your average monster, to be the first 15 people that will advance to the next round. The next section, 'Bravo', will have to collect 100 marbles which will drop from the monsters to enter the next round. And finally, the top adventures section, 'Alpha', will have to defeat 250 monsters and collect 50 marbles."

"Where did they catch all those monsters? And surely they aren't just regular monsters that can be trained to do these kinds of thing." I mutter.

_With the power of the Novas and the ancient magic of Kritias it's possible to summon them from other dimension. Don't tell me you forgot about that already Master._

"Mir! I totally forget about you! Where are you at now?"

_In the sky, watching from above._

At this moment, everyone notice that Mir is at the sky and look at him, thinking that the mighty Onyx Dragon is blessing them to win. (I got the Super Hearing Magic when I was 13 to listen what the other Heroes think about me, of course with other magic that enhance my senses.)

I look at the Coliseum trying to find where is Emily. Emily was looking at Mir for awhile and she saw me looking at her. She Sweetness (expression)at me and give me a thumbs up meaning that she will make it to the next round. Then she turns around and look at the speaker in the middle of the Coliseum, trying not to miss what will the speaker announce next.

I didn't do anything to tell her that I catch what she was trying to tell me because 1) I got a lot of female fans (though it's not even 1/10 if Phantom's) like Emily and 2) I don't need the Heroes to ask me a bunch of question later then since I promise not to tell anyone about Emily (I know it's only her power that I should kept as a secret but I scare that I might spill it out accidentally because I was still thinking what is that power.).

Suddenly three walls emerges from the ground and splitting the Coliseum into three parts. Then, the contestants rapidly gets teleport to their respective sections. Three portals appear in three sections with the words "Front" "Middle" and "The Peace".

"Contestants are given three choices to decide which part of the battlefield to go to. "The Peace" part of the battlefield is to give contestants that doesn't want to fight with other contestants. But~~there is a catch. The monsters there are 5 times stronger than the original ones so if you don't have the confident to defeat them please don't choose it~~"

"Maybe I should go for "The Peace" since there aren't many that will choose that portal and I'm positive that the "Front" and "Middle" part's monster will spawn quite slow. My skill range aren't that big but I'm confident in my strength. All right! It's decided then." Emily thought. She smile at "The Peace" portal while a few drops of sweat come down from her forehead. She tightens her grip which grabs her katana and ready for a sprint.

"I probably didn't realize just now but isn't her clothes not suitable for fighting? Didn't she thought of this when she came?" I am quite worried about her because all of the clothes that is for battle have a magic on them so that when monsters attack them their clothes won't get rip apart so quickly. Oh man, the thought of her being naked on the battlefield is making me-

_**Feel a little bit naughty? Hmm? Don't worry about it, it is natural for all growing boys. I had a time like th**__**is once**__** you know.**_

WA! It's you again?! What the hell is wrong with you man?

_**This time I'm going to ignore you because the Crimson Darkness is on the move, obviously. She choose "The Peace" portal and that is the perfect place for them to get her.**_

What?! Wait, how did you know she will choose "The Peace" portal?

_**No time for answers boy. I gotta go.**_

Wait! Why the hurry when you can help me?

_**I can't help you since I'm not missing the last episode of Naruto so shut **__**your mouth**__** and do your job!**_

What the hell...? He can't help me because he doesn't want to miss the last episode of...whatever that is?!

"Ready!"

Dammit, It's beginning already?

"Set!"

"Mercedes I'm sorry but I'm not feeling too well. I'm going to the bathroom. I'll be back soon!" I quickly teleport to Mir's back and command him to fly to "The Peace" of Emily's section

"Go!"

X

"Wait! Dammit. I told him not to eat 10 hamburgers in one go but apparently he didn't listen to me! It's only his fault that he'll miss the show." Mercedes was too slow to catch Evan so she take back her hand and cross her hands over her chest. Angrily.

Luminous looked at Evan's chair for awhile and thought of something. So he stood up and walk towards the ladder's entrance.

When Mercedes wanted to say something again, she saw the expression on Phantom's face. It was only a moment before she knew what is coming. She looked up to the sky and saw the dragon fly to "The Peace" part of the Charlie section.

When she was about to stand up, Aran pull her down and make her sit on her chair. Mercedes look at her and she sees Aran shake her head. She then realize that if she also go after Evan that would mean something is wrong because the Heroes aren't sitting here watching the show and it will cause a lot of trouble.

So Mercedes bite her lips and look at the dragon's shadow before it disappears in the forest. She wish that nothing horrible will happen.

X

Now I'm watching Emily using her flash jump to find monsters in "The Peace".

It's kinda dark because there are many trees and all of them are tall with lots of leaves blocking the sunlight from entering.

Her Flash Jump has a Traditional Chinese of "Fly" (same as Rogue's) in the middle and it was surround by eight katanas in the shape of Octagon (the katana's are placed at the points of the Octagon). The tip of the katana is face outward and all of it is in a circle with ancient words between the (very small) gap of the inner circle and outer circle. There is only azure colour for the whole flash jump.

"Hmm? There is no monster at all?" When Emily stop moving, she starts looking for monsters by observing the whole area.

"Pardon my intrusion but I've seem to forget to tell all contestants that when someone complete the quest it will announce the name of the section with the contestants name's behind it. Monster release countdown in five!"

"Four!"

"Three!"

A person in the shadow ready for his deadly blow.

"Two!"

"Hitokiri-"

"One!"

"Strike!"

"Zero!"

A flash of light passes the whole bunch of monsters the moment they spawn in front of Emily.

"Alpha Destiny."

"Bravo The Traveler."

"Charlie Hayato The Samurai."

"What is this?! The moment the monsters appears and in each section someone has already completed the quest! Unbelievable!"

All the monsters in front of Emily instantly fall down and a person walk out from the shadow.

He return his katana back into it's sheath and smile at her.

X

At Alpha section.

"Am I seeing this correctly?! The contestant Destiny complete the quest in an blink of an eye! On top of that, the monster's marbles just fly to his hands the moment they were defeated! What overwhelming power!"

That person wears a hood and a robe to hide his identity. The person put back his sword onto his back and walks towards the portal that leads to the resting room.

"Overwhelming you say?" An enormous flying ship suddenly appear from the clouds. The person in hood stop walking and look up to the sky.

"**This** is overwhelming. **Meltdown Explosion**." The ship fire full blast laser and hit the whole then extant his sword and grab all the marbles that was drop by the monsters. The person in hood then look at Xenon.

"Alpha Xenon."

"Wh-what is this?! Such powerful laser was shot and yet all the contestants didn't even have a scratch on them!"

"You, whatever you name is."

"Y-Yes?"

Xenon raise his head up and look at the speaker.

"He isn't the only one that have powers that are overwhelming."

"That includes you too right?" A person appear from "The Peace" portal.

"Alpha Kaiser."

"That is correct. Kyle."

Kyle slowly walk towards Xenon and stand beside him, put his arm around Xenon's neck and look at the mysterious person with him.

"Who is this dude?"

"...Get your hands off Kyle." Xenon give a cold look to Kyle.

"Alright. I assume that the guy in hood is the first one to complete the quest right?" He put down his arm and ask.

The mysterious contestant look at Kyle for a moment and continue walking back to the resting room.

"HEY! My name is Kyle! What's your name?(!) Don't worry, I won't bite!" He waves his hand at him and shouted.

The mysterious contestant step into the portal and disappears without looking back even once.

The other contestants starts fighting monsters when they spawn back.

"Did you notice?" Kyle's face suddenly turn serious.

"How could I not? He is clearly not human or Nova."

"Not only him, they are also many that sneaked in. And I wonder why the so-call Heroes couldn't defeat the Black Mage, they can't even tell who is what."

"Do you think is it possible that 'It' is opening?"

They both remain in silence.

"Only time will tell."

X

Meanwhile at Bravo section.

"This...is not possible! The person that finished the quest didn't move an inch! Who the hell is he?!"

"Damn~ This is too easy. Should have made it harder. Didn't even need to use mah skills~" A teenager with hazel hair and pupil smile at the defeated monster said.

_Who is this kid? Is the adventurers now this strong? Or am I still too weak? _

A person with long black hair wearing a traditional-looking clothe watching the teenager.

The teenager turn back and walk towards the portal he came from. When he passes the person, he whisper something to him.

"_Eunwol,The Forgotten Hero. Meet me at The Forest That Disappeared __after you finished the first round __if you still want to defeat the Black Mage._"

Eunwol startled when he heard his name was mentioned. When he came back from his shock, the teenager is almost at the portal already. He turn back and see the teenager is looking at him. The teenager grin at him and put his index finger in front of his mouth. Then, he walks into the portal and disappear.

Eunwol stare at the portal for awhile and turn back, walking towards the battlefield to find out who is the one that knows his long forgotten name with determine eyes.

X

"Mister Hayato I'm your big fan! Could you show me other skills you have?" Emily's eyes are shining while looking at Hayato.

Hayato, who is taller than Emily 30cm, has to look down to see her face clearly.

"...What is your name?"

"My name is Emily."

"Do you know Emily, in my country, before I came to Maple World, when you want to become a famous and strong warrior's follower, you have to show your skills to impress him or her."

Emily didn't get it for a moment, then her face turn red out of embarrassment when she get what Hayato is saying.

"Then, If I impress you with my skills, will you show me your other skills?"

"IF you can." Hayato smile.

Emily give a big smile to Hayato and walk towards a monster. She take a deep breath and stand on her battle stance.

"**Azure Style:One Sword Technique-Half Moon Slash!**"

She pull out her katana and give a full swing. The energy on her katana is release and is form into a blue shockwave.

The shockwave hit the monster but it didn't do much damage.

She quickly appears behind the monsters back and use her flash jump to reach the monsters head.

"**Azure Style:One Sword Technique-Moon Ripper!**"

She use her flash jump to jump around (beside) the monster's body, from the top the bottom while slashing it in high speed.

And when she reach the ground, she finish off the monster.

"**Azure Style:One Sword Finale-Back Flip Slash!**"

A blue line is seen in the middle of the monster when she finished executing her skill and the monster split in half.

"So, what do you think?" She turn back and look at Hayato.

Hayato walks towards her and say,

"You lack of power and,"

He draws out his sword and cut down the monster that is about to attack Emily. Emily crouch down while using both of her hands to cover her head when Hayato swings his sword and she look back when he is done.

"Awareness to your surroundings. Never underestimate an enemy or it shall be your downfall."

"Even if the enemy is a slime?" She look at him with watery eyes when she ask the question.

"Even is the enemy is a slime. It might suddenly become an enormous slime that will squish you like a bug." Hayato's face turn serious.

Emily gulp down her saliva.

Then suddenly Hayato's serious face turn into smiling face and chuckle a bit.

"You sure are interesting girl."

"My name is Emily, not girl." Emily stand up and look at him. She is a bit angry.

"C'mon. Can't you take a joke? Or can't you accept the fact that all famous and powerful warriors (he meant fighters, not just warrior) are just humans?"

"..."

"...What I just said, about lack of power and awareness is not your weakness. These things will increase as time passes by. But you do have three major weakness."

Emily becomes nervous and asks,

"What is it?"

"First, your sword. You need a custom made katana, since you are using one, that suites you and ONLY suites you. Only then your skills can reach the peak."

Emily has a feeling that she heard that from someone before but she can't remember.

"Second, your style."

"My, style?"

"Yes, your style. Obviously your skills have no relation to your style only when you use it your katana will turn into azure colour."

A few drops of sweat comes down from her forehead because she is afraid that Hayato might know of her power.

"And you shouldn't just name your style with the colour of your energy because-"

Emily hold her breath to prepare what comes next.

"-many people's mana (energy) are also azure and it is not special enough."

Emily sigh and is relief that he didn't find her power weird. But...

"You mean that every people has their own unique mana colour and not just one?"

"Of course! Different people have different attributes that is why the colours are all different. "

"Oh~"

"And the third is..." Hayato suddenly stop talking. He lost in his thoughts for awhile and said,

"No. You should discover it yourself. There is no meaning in it if you don't discover it yourself."

"But...!"

"And isn't there more important things to do?" He point at the board that is floating high in the sky.

Emily look at the direction he is pointing and realize that there is only six spots left in in this section! She turn and look at Hayato, not knowing what to say.

"I will teach you something special if you manage to pass this round. Good luck!" He walk past Emily and headed to the resting room portal.

He stop when he is halfway to the portal.

"Just so you know, level doesn't mean much to me, that is why I'm in this section. I'm more focus in my original strength. But to Kanna and Ayame it's something different since they can't be more stronger with just push-ups and sit-ups." He resume his walking after saying that sentence.

"Alpha Kanna."

"Bravo Ayame."

Emily is in panic and is walking in circle to think what to do.

"That is it for Alpha and Bravo section! Now only five spots left in Charlie section because the tenth spot has been taken by Kizo, one of Cheeky's apprentice!"

Emily calm down and think.

"I shouldn't have taken 'The Peace'. I thought the Exver is strong enough to kill the monsters in one hit but..." Emily bit her lips and think harder.

"Seems like I have no choice to use my last resort. I just wish Wing won't scold me for this."

Emily clear her mind and take a deep breath.

X

_Master, I don't see or feel the enemy is here. Are you sure it isn't just in your head?_

Don't talk to me, I'm trying to concentrate.

_Master, no offense but I don't think you can use the "Future Prediction" skill yet._

That's why I'm concentrating!

_Hmph._

Mir continue look for enemies when he sees Emily is doing something weird.

_Master I think you should see this._

What is it?!

_It's Emily._

I quickly open my eyes and stand up. I look down and I see Emily is focusing her energy into her hands.

_Master I don't think Emily is going to make it into the next round if she is still not fighting monsters._

Wait, I saw that before. I think there was a book that says if you focus your energy in your palm and...!

"Mir! Fly down now!"

_Master, but that's-_

"Do it now!"

_Yes Master!_

"Please don't be what I think it is."I pray in my heart.

_Master, look! A monster is trying to attack her!_

"Full speed!"

_I am!_

Emily starts to move her hands and she stop moving her hands when her palms are facing her chest.

"No!"

When the monster's attack is about to hit Emily, something I never seen before happen.

"**Azure Secret Technique:Infinite Boost.**"

She push her power-concentrated palm onto her chest. An immense power of shockwave was released around her and the monster behind her is...incinerated.

"Shit! Dammit, I was too late. Stop flying towards her!" Mir immediately stops his wings and quickly maintain his position.

Emily's eyes turn azure and her body is covered by a powerful azure aura.

_What..is this Master?_

"Just watch...for now."

Emily suddenly disappears and a dozens of monsters are instantly cut into half or in pieces.

"Charlie Chris."

"Four left."I said to myself inside my heart.

Emily moves faster and faster that I can't even see her attacks on the monsters.

"Charlie Jenny."

"Three spots left y'all! Three spots left!"

Emily is fifty percent finish with her quest.

"Charlie Darkspot."

"Two left! Two!"

Emily suddenly stops and jumps up to the sky.

"Charlie Smith."

"Last spot people!"

When I thought Emily is not going to make it, she falls down from the sky with her katana aiming down. When her katana pierce into the ground, her katana shattered into pieces and a wave of energy is release. The moment it touches monster it gets vaporized right away.

"Charlie Emily."

"That is it folks! Thanks for coming and we will see you real soon!"

The aura surrounding Emily dispersed into the air. Her eyes also turns back into it's original colour.

"Thank Transcendent that she pass. Mir quickly fly down."

_Yes Master._

I sprint towards Emily when Mir landed.

"Emily! Are you alright?" I grab her shoulders and ask. She look extremely exhausted and is about to faint.

"Hey..Evan. I..huh..made it...into the next...round. Is-isn't it great?" She smile tiredly.

"Stop talking and rest. We can talk later."

"Good...idea."After finishing her sentence, she faint and fall into my arms. I quickly read her pulse. I am relief when I know that she fainted only because all of her energy is drain out and she is now sleeping to recover.

I slowly put her down and let her lie down on the grass. I sit beside her and look at the sky.

Mir slowly walks towards me and lies down beside me.

_You want to tell me what she did just now Master?_

"What Emily did just now was focusing all the energy inside her body and move it to her palms. As you know, the mana inside us are useless but if we convert into something else it will become powerful. In short, the energy on her hands is that 'something else' and she put it back into her body. So, what do you think it will happen?"

_It-_

"It will temporary supercharge up all your internal organs and system to make you into a superman for a few minutes."

A person wearing a hood walks out from the shadows and stand behind them. Evan's instinct reacts faster than he knows. When he notice there is a person standing behind them, they were already teleported to a farther place. When he stand up and look back at the person, he scold himself for being careless.

"It's you, from a few days ago." Me and Mir stand on our guard and prepare for the next move he will take.

"But, if the user's body could not take the energy, the user will suffer a heavy inner injury. Worst case scenario, the user dies." The man grin.

"Thanks for the unneeded info." I point my wand at him.

_Not complete unneeded._

Mir!

_Just saying._

"This is my lucky day. Now that the girl is out of power and only a pesky brat is in the way."

"Don't underestimate me." I'm ready to give this bastard a real hard attack any moment.

"Oh how could I?" He suddenly put both of his palm facing each other. A small black dot is form and it's getting bigger by the second in the middle between his palms.

"I will make sure you and the girl die this time. That is why I'm killing you with my best attack, The **Darkness Burst.**"

I cast a level four thunder spell on him simultaneously for five times. Mir uses Flame Wheel to make the attack more effective. When the smoke is clear out, he didn't even budge! His small black down has turn into a football size black sphere.

"No way.." My voice is trembling a little and sweat is coming down from my head. I never saw someone or any monster that can survive that kind of attack.

"You need to do it better boy." He grin again.

When I was about to cast a stronger spell, Mir stop me from doing it.

What are you doing Mir?!

_Master, we only have fifteen seconds left before he fire that thing! We don't have time for another attack!_

Then what do we do?!

_We use The Barrier!_

What?! But only Freud can cast it! I didn't master the skill that much yet!

_Five seconds!_

Looks like I don't have a choice_._

I chant the spell for three seconds and it appear in front of us, but it looks weak.

_Transferring all my power to Master._

"Time to die, Dragon Master Evan." He shoot the ball of black matter and is heading straight for us. The ground that it passes is vaporized.

When it hit The Barrier, I almost let go of my wand. What power! Even though The Barrier is incomplete but it can still withstand Arkarium's ultimate attack, The Shattered Dimension. But this is totally on a whole different level!

The man slowly walks towards and he stops in front of his dark energy ball.

"Goodbye, you useless human." He stretch his arm and aim his hand at me. A black energy appear on his palm and he shoot it at the weakest point of The Barrier.

The Barrier shatter and Mir and I fall to the ground. The ball of dark energy keep heading straight for us.

I close my eyes and prepare for the worst to come. But it didn't.

"**Blinding Pillar!**" A strong force push me, Mir, Emily and the man away.

"**Light of Heaven.**" Luminous swiftly stand in front of the dark magic ball and neutralize it instantly.

"Impossible! Only-"

"**Light Pillar.**" He point his shining rod at the man and a strong pillar of light shine at him from the sky.

The man vanish after letting out an angry scream.

"Lu-Luminous. You saved us." I said that when I recover from what just happened.

Luminous grab my shirt and lift me up. Then he give me a heavy punch at my cheek, resulting me fall hard to the ground. I touch my swollen cheek and look at him, not knowing why I got punched on my face.

"You little piece of shit! What do you think you are doing, huh?!" He said angrily.

"Wh-what are you saying?"

"You could have used any light magic to repel him, even with Flash Shower! Why didn't you use it when he is charging up for his attack?!"

"B-but I didn't know he has darkness attribute before he use that attack. And I-I was too shock to think what to use-"

He crouch down and punch me again. Then he grab my shirt again and pull me towards his face.

"You were too shock you say? Well, while fighting with the Black Mage you won't have your life after you have a bloody shock!"

"I-"

"And not to mention, you could have use the Attribute Detector spell to know what kind of skill he uses! You could have died from that do you know that?! You should be more flexible and not acting like an amateur! You disappoint me Evan."

His wrathful eyes look right into my soul and I have no words to say to him.

"Freud could have done better than that."

I feel a surge of rage bursting from my heart when he said that sentence. I grab his hand and shove it away. I am angry. Always, ALWAYS comparing me with Freud.

Luminous stand up and look at me with cold eyes.

"Who is this girl, Evan?"

"...None of your concern."

"Is she the reason why Crimson Darkness is attacking the town?"

"...Are you going to kill her because of it?"

"I'm not anything like Black Mage. Go back to the palace after you calm down, when I...calm down. You got a lot explaining to do. Tonight will also be one if your toughest training yet, so come back before ten or Mercedes will handle your punishment. You too Mir, because you are obviously better than this." A shiver went down my spine when I heard "Mercedes".

Luminous teleport back and I just left my mind blank.I come back to my senses when Mir call me loudly.

_Master! Are you there?!_

I didn't react much after he shout at me. I look at the sky and I realize it's already evening. I turn to my right. Emily is still sleeping soundly. I look at the sky again for a few minutes and I stand up.

I send Emily back to the Inn stealthily and left. After that, I walk around the food stalls that is set up for the Festival and bought some food. I bring the food to Mir and we eat together.

_I'm sorry,Master. I should have done better._

I stop eating and put down my hand.

"You know it was not your fault. As the reincarnation of Freud, I have failed today."

_But Master..._

"I know, but I shouldn't run away from reality. I am THE Freud's reincarnation and only I have the power to seal Black Mage when it comes down to it. But to prevent the tragedy from 400 years ago from happening once again, I must work hard, harder than Freud ever did. Until I finally found a solution to all of...this."

Mir look at me for a short moment and continue eating his food. It's so great to have a partner that can understands you so much. Then I continue to eat my food, only faster.

X

"Cool down already?" Luminous look at me. He is leaning against the wall next to the main gate.

"I should ask you the same." I smile.

"Good, then let's get started. Training or talking?" He stand up and walk through the gate.

"I think I'll go with training first, because talking is going to take all day."

I follow him and walk right through the gate. This night is going to be looooong.

_**To be continued...**_

* * *

**That is it folks! Ah, nothing feels better than finishing a good chapter.**

**Now it's time for a little additional info. First, don't care who is speaking through the speaker, but it is surely that all three announcer for all three sections are different person.**

**The things that Hayato said to Emily about 'follower' is all made up because I think there is really something like that?**

**In case you didn't know, level 130~170 contestants are in Charlie section, level 180~210 in Bravo section and level 220~250 are in Alpha section.**

**I choose to put Alpha, Bravo and Charlie because I don't know what else to put. The idea of putting those three names just came across my mind and I decide to fill it in.**

**I know that the skills that Luminous isn't in Maple Story. I can't follow everything exactly according to the game because it's really hard to make the fighting scenes better and it will be boring and might be a bit weird if I only use the original skills.**

**Feel free to ask questions if you don't understand anything in this chapter or something weird because, to be frank, I completely forgot what I wrote for the last two chapters and some parts might not add up. Also, remind me if I have done any mistake.**

**The next chapter will be a special one. I think I'll do a special chapter every 3 or 6 chapters. I will also write one about all Emily's skills to save my time describing the skills every time she uses one.**

**Please review! I seriously mean it or I don't know where to improve. I'm treating this whole writing story thing as an improvement for my English.**


	5. Special Chapter: The Untold Story (I)

"**There is always light."**

**An orb of light floats on his right hand.**

"**There is always darkness."**

**An orb of darkness floats on his left hand.**

"**There is always a point of center, the Equilibrium."**

**An orb made of light and darkness floats in front of his chest.**

"**The Ultimate Light Can Only Be Found In The Ultimate Darkness. Those were the last words of the White Mage before he disappeared from this world."**

**He placed both of his hands down as the orbs continued to float in midair.**

"**Before knowing the future, know first the past."**

**He snaps his fingers and the three items vanished.**

"**I, the observer and recorder of stories, will tell you a tale. A tale before he was the Black Mage, before he was the Transcendent of Light and before he was the White Mage. **

**This is the story of a human and how he met his destiny, led by the fate of this world."**

* * *

X

A boy ran through the hallway in a hurry with every intention of arriving at his destination a second faster, not knowing of the noise he was creating nor did he care as he continued dashing past people who came out to the hallway to see what the commotion was about.

When he reached the door he was looking for he swung it open with full force while panting in short breaths.

"Wing! Something big just happened—WOAH!" The boy's sentence was cut short when an accurately thrown book hit him squarely in the forehead and sent him falling onto the floor.

"Haven't I told you a million times before to _not_ run in hallways, especially the one which is the closest to the library?"

The boy stood up and continued what he wanted to say.

"Today is for a completely different reason! I'm not here for the usual bugging."

"I don't see any difference since the noise you made while running through the hallway still managed to disturb me while I'm reading in the library."

"Would it kill you to stop-"

"**DON'T EVEN.**"

"Fine, whatever. The thing that I wanted to tell you was that there's this new girl who arrived just now and she is reeeeally beautiful! Like an angel-"

"—that came down from the very heavens. Yeah, yeah. I've heard you say that to me every time you see a girl who looks in your direction and gives a wink or a smile at you."

"No Wing. This time is truly different. She really IS beautiful. Plus here's something that will probably pique your interest—her background is similar to yours."

The white haired boy that paid half attention to his babbling friend suddenly halted, his hand fingering the edge of the page he wanted to turn. His silver white eyes showed a glint of sympathy when he heard that last sentence.

He closed his book and got off from his chair before pushing it back inside the table and dusted his plain T-shirt and pants that matched the color of his eyes. He started walking towards the boy standing in front of the library. He had hazel colored hair and cyan eyes.

"Still wearing the usual dressing combination? Black shirt white shorts? It doesn't suit you well." The white haired boy stops in front of his friend.

"Whatever. Even though the colours might not do me a lot favor, but I heard from the other guys and girls that I look better than the brown shirt blue shorts combo. Heh."

"Still trying to make it sound that you are cooler than me hmm?"

"Shut it. You wanna go see the girl or not Wing?" The hazel haired boy huffs as he crossed his hands in front of his chest.

"Lead the way, Captain Eddy." The other said as he gave a mock bow with one hand on his chest while the other hand stretched towards the hallway. His friend grinned as he went on first with the white hair boy following him on his right while he was on the left.

**The one on the right is the one who will destroy the world in the foreseen future, Wing Spellmaster.**

**The one on the left is his one and only best friend, Eddy Steins.**

**The one that they will soon meet is the one that will cause the gears of destiny to turn towards the dark future, Emily Valentine.**

**X**

"See? Didn't I tell you that she's as beautiful as an angel?" The boys arrived at the side of the gate stealthily, poking their heads out to see the girl while trying not to get caught.

"Really? I don't recall any angels donning such a sad face." Wing snorted.

"What can you expect? She had to move into an orphanage after seeing her whole village get massacred in front of her very own eyes. I'm surprised she isn't crying." Eddy retorted.

"Mind reading magic again?" Wing raised an eyebrow.

"Yeap. I used it on the priest. Seriously, that priest's mind is full of 18+ stuff dude." Eddy groaned.

"And how do you know about that, Mr. Know It All?" Wing glance at Eddy suspiciously.

"I...uh…found his hidden stash?" He smiled sheepishly.

Wing look at him with his deadpan face and his customary glare that said 'You think I'm going to believe that?' and 'If you don't cough out the truth I _will _hit you'.

Suddenly a huge shadow towers behind them.

"Well, well, well. What do we have here? Two boys peeping at the side of the girl's dormitory's gate."

A large woman wearing a maid outfit glared at them as they raised their head to see who it is.

"(_Whispers_) This is bad Wing, what are we going to do? Being caught by the girl's dormitory's master is the last thing I want to experience."

"(_Whispers_) Don't worry, it will be your second last thing."

"(_Whisper_s) Why is that it's my second last thing?"

"(_Whispers_) Because the last thing you want to experience is being betrayed by your comrade." Wing's eyes glittered with an evil spark.

"Wait, what?"

"See ya!" He threw a smoke bomb on the ground and immediately dashed from the area.

"What the hell Wing?!" Eddy shouted while coughing because of the inhaled smoke.

"I ain't sitting around just to get caught you know!"

When Eddy tries to stand up and run, a large hand grabs the collar of his shirt and lifts him up.

"Where do you think you are going, little boy?" When Eddy looks back, he saw the Master's face turn black and her eyes were like twin shining stars.

"Damn you Wing!"

Wing makes an 'in-your-face' expression and makes his way to the inner part of the girl's dormitory while the Master is shouting to her assistant to catch him.

Meanwhile, the girl that was standing outside the outer gate watched the whole thing happen.

"…Wing."

X

"Dammit Wing! Because of you now I have a test to attend, which is about the formula of those completely-of-no-use potions! I wonder why they won't teach us about potions that actually matters, like a super stat boost potion or an invisibility potion...hey are you even listening?" He looked at Wing with annoyance.

Wing was in fact, not listening. All he was thinking about was what Eddy had told him in the library and the entire scenario on their way to the girl's dormitory.

"You're lying, Eddy."

"What?! Now you're suspecting of ME lying when I was the one who got caught red-handed? If you didn't want me to ask for your help with the test tomorrow then you could've just said so-"

"How did you know her village was massacred?"

"Didn't I told you already? I-"

"I'm not an ordinary person Eddy. You of all people should know that."

"..."

"...If you don't want to answer, then I don't want to force you. You don't keep secrets unless it's important. But let me remind you that you've promised me that you will tell me everything." He glanced at Eddy's face ridden with rampant emotions. The one that showed the most was guilt.

"I'm sorry, but I can't tell you."

Wing started in surprise because whenever he mentioned the promise, Eddy would spill everything like a broken dam.

"**Attention everyone please gather in the hall, we have a new member to introduce.**" A deep voice came out from the speakers that hung above them.

"Let's get going Wing." Eddy smiled at him.

Wing recovered from his 'shock' and smiled back at his friend. He could tell that Eddy will bury this secret deep into his heart. He didn't mind and placed the matter aside because it might not be as important as he thought it would be.

X

"This is Emily Valentine. We usually would say a little about the newcomer's background but she doesn't want to let anyone know, so please understand and treat her well."

Emily stood beside the girl's dormitory's master with soulless orbs and a face that was as pale as a ghost's, the plain white dress she wore helped accentuate her paleness. However her azure hair and eyes was a complete contrast.

"Hey, Wing-"

"We should introduce to her the monastery. She could use some advice on directions in this huge place."

Eddy looked at him for awhile before his face broke out into a grin.

"You wanna be her boyfriend?"

"No, I just-"

"I understand old buddy, there's no need to explain."

"…You do?"

"Yeah, your head is filled with dirty stuff that you want to do with her at night right?" His friend started to laugh.

"You bastard-"

"Quick! The introduction is over! You better do it fast or else the other boys will get to her first!" Eddy cut his sentence short as he prepared to dash over to Emily.

"No need for that, I don't think anyone would want to get close to a ghost-like girl."

Eddy looked at him and looked at the stage again. When Emily came down, all the kids parted like the red sea. The dormitory master saw this and shook her head. This will be problematic, she thought.

"Let's go!" Eddy and Wing started walking towards her.

When they reach the stage, most of the kids have already left and soon it was just the dormitory master and Emily with her bags in the area.

"Hi, Master Abigail." Both Wing and Eddy said it at the same time while smiling at her.

"You brats again! You wanna get some more punishment?" She looked at them with an angered face.

"No, Master Abigail, we just wanted to remind you that your drama series 'Maple Love' is about to start. You can leave it to us to introduce her to the monastery, while you can go enjoy your life." Eddy smirked.

When it looked like she was going to scold them again, Wing winked at her and gestured to Emily.

Abigail looked at boys before sighing happily. She nodded her head meaning that they were allowed to help Emily recover from whatever trauma she has.

"I'll take her bags to her room. Remember to take her to meet Acial after dinner. But don't you dare do anything weird to her or both of you will get a trip to the Punishment Room. Got it?"

They both gulped and answered yes. The master took Emily's bag and walked back to the dormitory.

"Welcome to the Silencer's Monastery. Today we will be your tour guide." Eddy said loudly and happily to her but she didn't give any reaction, she just stood there like a statue.

"What should we do Wing? She's not even listening to me. ME! The best talker in this monastery which can make the saddest person turn into a laughing one!"

"More like make a stone weep." Wing smirked, taking revenge at his friend for the earlier comment as Eddy glared at him and Wing cut him off before he could start ranting again.

"Shut it Eddy. I think I can make her give some reaction, but you have to promise me to not shout when I do it."

"No problem, that is if you can-"

Wing kissed her forehead before Eddy could finish his sentence. Emily's eyes started to move as she look at the person in front of her. Wing's lips left her forehead and his hand immediately covered Eddy's mouth before he could say anything.

"...Wing..." She murmured.

"So I was right..." Wing muttered.

Eddy removed Wing's hand from his mouth and demanded, "What is right about this? How is this possibly right?! Kissing a girl's forehead will make her come out from whatever castle she buried herself in and make her say your name!? This ain't Sleeping Beauty you know!"

"She DOES have a similar background like me."

Eddy abruptly stopped his complaints.

"Wait…Then does that mean, she..."

"Yes."

"But you said..."

"I know what I said. But for now, let's just take her to a tour around the Monastery shall we?" Wing smiled at him.

"Alright! Let's get going then!" Eddy pumped his fist into the air and shouted.

X

After a few hours of touring the monastery, Emily slowly started to 'turn' back to normal. Her face was no longer as pale as before and she started to make some expression when Eddy did something ridiculous or say something funny.

"Here is our last stop, The Silence Library. The biggest library in Mu Lung and also one of the three biggest libraries in existence." Wing, Eddy and Emily stood before the humongous door of the library.

"They said that the giants built this library for The Silencer, which was the founder of this monastery. Nobody knows who The Silencer truly is but it seems like he was a hero of some kind and decided to build this monastery as his final resting place." Wing explained.

Emily looked like she wanted to ask a question but she fidgeted instead, feeling shy and still very unfamiliar.

"Now the question is, where is his tomb? Well nobody has found it, yet. One day I'm gonna find his tomb and take anything that is inside there. Muahaha-"

Wing swatted his friend's head and pointed to Emily. Emily shook in slight fear, she was afraid that the ghost of The Silencer will come out if his tomb was found and start to kill people.

Eddy didn't say anything after he was hit. But he did give Wing a dirty look and walked into the library.

Wing gently scratched the back of his head and sighed.

"He isn't someone who will steal things from a tomb. He'll probably just brag to the world he found the tomb to become famous. He doesn't want to die without anyone around to remember him after all. We all do."

Wing continued walking forward to the miniature door built at the bottom of the humongous door. Since humans can't open a door that big, they just simply made a smaller one at the bottom of the door and made it as the entrance to the library.

Emily slowly followed Wing into the library.

"Now it's my turn to talk. All the book shelves are five meters high so you'd better be careful when you want to take a book from the fifth floor of the shelf, or you will die a horrible, horrible death~~"Eddy tried to scare Emily again.

Eddy successfully scared Emily because her face became even whiter than before.

Wing walked to his side and knock his head with his fist. Eddy yelped and carefully touched the spot that Wing landed his fist on.

"Would you stop that?"

"Ah let me think about it, hmm, how about no. Hee hee." He smiled cunningly.

Wing turned to look at Emily.

"Don't listen to him. When they first found the library they didn't think of building stairs to reach the highest floor of the bookshelves so they _did_ fall to their deaths. But since then, they have built stairways on each of the bookshelves. Surprisingly all these books are already in normal book size when they were first found in the library."

Wing and Eddy kept showing and explaining all the things in the library to Emily. She didn't react much until she reached the middle of the library. She looked at the end of the hallway that was between two bookshelves and stopped walking for a moment.

Wing turned his head and noticed Emily was staring at the end of the hallway.

"So she does wield god's power like I do." Thought Wing.

Emily snapped back from watching the end of the hallway and continued walking a bit faster towards to catch up with them. Wing managed to turn back his head before Emily saw him looking at her.

After an hour~

"...And that's it! Thank you for joining the ultimate and most funny tour in this monastery!" Eddy bowed in front of Emily after finishing his sentence. When he stood back up, Emily wasn't showing any emotions. She just stared at him.

Eddy's smile froze and turned into F7.

Wing patted his best friend's shoulder consolingly and said, "Nice try. Maybe next time."

Eddy angrily turned his head to another direction and found out that it's already 8 o'clock.

"Wing! It's already dinner time! We gotta hurry!" Eddy panicked.

"Shi- I mean, dammit! Eddy you better hang onto me! And Emily, please don't let go of my hand." He grabbed Emily's hand gently.

"Don't worry! I'll hang onto you forever!" Eddy hugged Wing's waist tightly.

"Not too tight! Be prepared Emily, this is going to be a bumpy ride," Emily panicked and tried to break free of his grip but didn't manage to before he used the teleport spell, "Ianuae Magicae!" Emily quickly closed her eyes.

When Emily opened her eyes again, she saw kids fighting against each other with a spoon and fork.

"Eddy!" Wing shouted.

"Aye, captain!" Eddy immediately let go of Wing and grabbed Emily's hand forcefully and started running towards the tables. Wing teleported to the front of the food stand looking ready to fight and take the food.

"I know you have a lot of questions and that I'm grabbing your hand forcefully, but you must bear with it for a while."

After swimming in the crowd for a few minutes, Eddy could see that Emily was beginning to grimace in pain and he thought of an idea. He quickly stopped moving and carried her on his shoulder. Emily's face turned bright red and tried to get down, but Eddy didn't let her.

He kept moving and searching for a spot to sit. Emily calmed down a little bit and realized that the whole place is packed with kids. All the kids were either fighting for a place to sit or for food.

"Found it!" Eddy used all his might and jumped towards a vacant table. Emily almost screamed but at the same time she was also impressed how strong Eddy was.

When Eddy landed on the table, he quickly stabilize his body to prevent Emily from falling and quickly took out something from his pocket and insert it into a small hole in the middle of the table. A blue shield instantly covered the table and Eddy shouted,

"Wing! Island secured!"

"Received!"

Eddy happily got down from the table and placed Emily down gently. He told Emily to sit down on the chair as he sat on the chair at the other side of the table. Emily is still recovering from what just happened during the past few minutes.

"First things first, rule number 1, do NOT be late for dinner or we will have to go through all that again." Eddy looked at the puzzled Emily.

"Second, since there was no way to contain this situation for the past few decades, they decided to turn this into a game. The tables are Islands, once you reach one, you insert this flag into the hole in the middle of the table so that someone else won't try to pull you out from your table. I always find the table and Wing always go for the food, which is by the way 10 times fiercer than here."

"Third, why do all this when we can do it nicely? First, if you got no place to sit and since the canteen is not big enough to fit us all, then you gotta eat while standing or you'll have to eat beside the toilet. Second, you saw that cauldron with funny stuff bubbling in it?" Eddy pointed his finger at the wall behind the food stall. A metal cauldron hung there.

"Once all the food in the food stall is finished, the kitchen staff will bring down that and make you EAT it." Emily's face immediately turned pale again, that stuff looked like some kind of dangerous chemical.

"It was put there to remind us not to be late for dinner. In that container lies the most disgusting but most nutritious boiled vegetables in Maple World. Why won't they make more food in the food stall? Because it's to save cost, since they are many of us here, they couldn't afford to buy that many ingredients for edible food. And so they plant that vegetable in the backyard and let whoever that was too late to get the usual delicious food eat it. It also serves as a punishment."

Emily didn't think that this place could be so horrible. When they first took her in, they said that this place could make her forget her painful past and help her move on but this whole situation looks like a battlefield.

"Let's hope Wing can get us food." Said Eddy. Then he clasped both of his hands together and prayed.

It seems like that thing is really disgusting, Emily thought. She also prayed in her mind that Wing would succeed.

X

"We meet again Wing. This time I'll definitely-" Wing didn't wait for whoever that was to finish his sentence and stepped on his face. He had already got 80% of the food for the three of them. Now for the last stop, the meat section, the most dangerous place in the whole monastery at night.

Those who fight for the food must obey two big rules, 1) Must not injure other people too badly and cause them to bleed, 2) Must not drop ANY food at all. If the magic camera caught anyone dropping his or her food, that person will have to eat that disgusting piece of crap for ONE week. And whoever manages to survive THAT will be crowned with the title "The Food Survivor".

When Wing reached the most deadly section, a person was already waiting there. A boy with green colored hair stood at the top of the food stall and used a barrier magic to cover all of the meat.

"Ah, Wing. I've been waiting for you." He grinned at Wing when he arrived at the food stall.

Wing looked up and smiled, "Waiting for me to beat you?"

"Not today." He then released a magic ball and let it fly towards Wing. Wing easily dodged it.

"What the hell Greene?! Just give us our meat you fucking bastard!" One of the kids that is standing in front of the meat shouted.

"You can have it if you help me defeat Wing!" He replied back angrily.

"No way man. Wing is the official champion of this crazy food fighting competition. There is no way you can defeat him."

"Then you can enjoy the whole week eating that disgusting slop!" Greene shouted and shot a magic ball towards that boy.

When it was about to hit him, Wing cancelled it out by casting a neutralization spell.

"Just let it go will you? A girl is waiting for me you know?"

"I, Chuck Greene WILL defeat you in this competition; get all the delicious food and Get. Your. Girl."

"Just you try." Wing stared at him with determined eyes.

Chuck brandished his wand and shoot a concentrated magic ball towards Wing. 'You won't dodge this Wing, I specifically learnt this homing magic ball to defeat you today!' Chuck thought.

Wing jumped up to dodge the magic ball but he soon realized that the ball was chasing him. He jumped from one food stand to another. He took out his wand and tried to dispel it but he couldn't.

"Save you efforts Wing! I added a Block attribute into this spell, you won't be able to dispel it! Haha! I win Wing!" He laughed evilly.

"Did you now?" Wing smirked.

"And how are you going to turn the tables?"

"By doing this." he quickly teleported to Chuck's front and waited for the magic ball to fly towards him. Chuck was surprised by his sudden appearance. When he tried to push Wing down, Wing back flipped and let the magic ball fly straight towards Chuck.

"Crap!" He said before he was blasted to ground by his own technique. The food he gathered all splattered onto the floor.

"You didn't go to the martial arts class again did you? The instructor taught this during that class." Wing smiled. He jumped down and dispelled the barrier that Chuck cast. He took all the food he needed in light speed and ran towards where Eddy and Emily sat.

When Chuck got up and went to chase Wing, a big hand tap his shoulder. He knew whose hands were those and gulped. His sweat ran like rain as he slowly turned around. He saw the chef grabbing a bowl of soup.

"Since you like to waste good food, I'll treat you to this very healthy vegetable soup that you will never forget." The chef said with a very dark and wrathful face. Chuck shouted a sentence so loud and clear that everyone in the canteen heard it.

"I'll get my revenge on you Wing!"

"Yeah, you wish." He snorted. He turned back and jumped towards their table. He landed perfectly on the surface and not even a single morsel of food fell. He jumped down to the floor after swiftly placing the food he gathered onto the table.

"You did a nice job there Wing." Eddy said and then he proceeded to stuff his face with food.

"You're welcome to eat as much as you want Emily, I've taken plenty." Wing smiled before he also dug in.

Emily meekly took a fried chicken leg and bit into it. It was tasty, all the juice from the meat and oil flowed into her mouth. That encouraged her to speed up eating too.

X

"Man am I stuffed or what?!" Eddy said loudly.

"You're pregnant, not stuffed. Look at your stomach." Wing chuckled as he glanced at that area.

"You too man." He poked at Wing's big stomach.

"Alright kids! Time to go back to your room!" One of the dormitory's master shouted.

Both Wing and Eddy stood up. Emily quickly stood up with them.

"Emily, do you see the woman standing beside the canteen's door? She's Acial. Go talk to her. Just stand in front of her and she'll take you to your room." After saying that, Eddy and Wing walked towards the exit that led to the boy's dormitory.

Emily wanted Wing to stay with her for a few more minutes, but she was too shy and afraid to ask.

X

"This is your room! This room is specially made for kids like you, kids that have traumas. I don't mean to be offensive, I was told to let you know that you can rest quietly without being disturbed by other girls. The last girl that lived here already moved out so now it's only you in here. Let me turn on the lights." She turned on the lights and let Emily in. Then she started to explain the room to Emily.

"That's about it! If you have any questions, you can go to the room next door. I'll be staying there. Now I'll have to go so have a good night!" She smiled at Emily and going out of the room and closed the door gently.

Emily offed the lights and walked towards the window. She stared at the stars and began thinking about her family and what had happened. She couldn't sleep even if she wanted to.

She started to remember what she did with Eddy and Wing a couple of hours ago. She felt a warm feeling in her chest which she hasn't felt for a long time.

She remembered the place she saw in the library. She opened the door and left her room slowly and quietly. It's already in the middle of the night and she didn't want anyone to wake up and ask her what she's doing. She slowly walked towards the library in hurried steps.

X

"Eddy, wake up." Wing shook the sleeping body again and again.

"...(_grunt_) Not today Wing. I need to sleep." After saying that, he turned to the other side.

"What about the promise you made with me when I first came here?"

Eddy turned back and opened his sleepy eyes real big.

"Whose fault do you think it is that I have to take a goddamn test tomorrow?!" He hissed softly then angrily turned back and covered his head with his blanket.

Wing stood up and scratched the back of his head.

"Guess I'll go to the library myself." He teleported outside of the room silently and walked towards the library.

X

Emily walked to the end of the hallway with a book under her arm. It was a book about the legends and histories of Maple World. She stopped when she was reached a particular wall. She gently closed her eyes and touched the wall.

At first nothing happened, after that the wall started disappearing and the illusion was dispelled. A small space registered in her eyes when she opened them. It was more like a gap between two walls and it could be clearly seen that this place was specially made for a huge person to sit in.

She didn't think about it much and just sat down in the middle of that little space. She opened her book and started reading. She was so drawn into the book that she didn't notice that someone was walking towards her. She still doesn't notice him when he sat down beside her and glanced at her.

Wing just kept looking at her reading her book. When he was thinking what to say to her, Emily raised her head and twisted her neck a little bit. That's when she noticed Wing sitting beside her and staring at her. He began to panic and thought that she would scream and attract the sisters (as in the nuns) to this area.

Instead of screaming, Emily just froze there. She was too shocked to even say something much less scream. Then she slowly raised her book in an attempt to cover her pale face. Wing sweat-dropped when he saw Emily did that.

Eventually he sighed and stared straight in front.

"You know, I was once like you." Wing suddenly began. Emily returned to her senses when Wing said that.

"You've probably heard of the name Spellmaster before." Emily's body shook a bit when she heard him say that. No one in Maple World is clueless to name "Spellmaster", she thought. Could it be that he's...? Wing saw her body shook and smiled.

"I know what you're guessing. Yes, I am a Spellmaster, Wing Spellmaster. As you know, the Spellmaster family was supposed to have been annihilated a few years ago. I was the only survivor. Everyone knows that they were all killed in a big fire when they had a family reunion, but of course that was a lame lie made up by the people that wanted to cover up the whole thing. Think about it, the best family of mages in the whole world killed in a fire? That sounds so ridiculous; whoever made that lie up didn't even try to do his job. My family was plagued by our enemies, my parent's enemies." Wing had an enraged expression when he reached this point.

"Our family has always produced powerful mages and no other family could compete with them. The Spellmaster family had a lot of rivals and enemies than people that they could trust. Even inside the family itself had spies, but they were found out immediately and taken care of. But strangely enough, all the Spellmasters had always been able to find someone that they could trust and spend their lives with. That is the reason why the Spellmaster bloodline never broke. But everything changed when I was born." Emily lowered her book just enough to see his face.

"I was a prodigy. The most powerful family of mages had someone they called a prodigy, do you know what that means? It means that all the enemies and rivals will team up and wipe out the prodigy before he could deal with them first. The only thing that I could remember before my family was killed is that I was always been monitored. I never had a chance to stand outside the house like the other children. I was envious of them. On my fifth birthday, I wished that I could step outside the house. I was scolded badly by my parents and I was told not to have that kind of thought ever again. I was so sad and angry that I said something that I still regret today. I wished that they could go their graves so that I could be free." Emily saw tears beginning to spill from his eyes.

"The next day, a meeting between the Spellmasters was held. I don't remember what they were talking about but what I remembered is that when the meeting ended, a large group of people came in from everywhere. They used a special potion which made my family unable to use their magic. After that was my worst nightmare." Wing's body started shivering.

"They captured me and they tortured my entire family before my eyes. They gave them potions that will cause harm to them in the most painful way thinkable. They kept repeating that everything that happened today was my fault, because I existed. They knew that they couldn't kill me because I have powerful regeneration abilities, but they could still shatter my mind. In the end, they turned my family into horrifying and disgusting mindless monsters. They killed them like they were animals. They lit a blazing fire to the house to cover their tracks and hope for a chance to kill me in that fire."

Wing stopped talking for awhile and wiped away his tears. He didn't turn to see Emily's expression, he probably couldn't stand it if he saw her expression.

"After a few days, some of the few allies of the Spellmasters found me and kept me in a safe place for a few months. It was horrible. The nightmare just kept on coming and coming. I just felt soulless. After a year, their search for me had gone down and they sent me to this place. I was just like you when I came here except I didn't trust anyone and I hated everyone and everything in this place. When I thought of running away from this place to seek my revenge, Eddy stopped me. I couldn't imagine what I would have become if Eddy didn't stop me that day." Emily placed her book down and listened with rapt attention to Wing's story.

"At first I ignored him, but he kept to talk to me. After that, I punched him to the face to try and shut him up but that only made him try even harder to make me say something. Man, those days he was annoying as hell. He kept doing funny things or weird things trying to make me laugh. He kept messing my things up and wanted me to open my mouth and scold him. But all of it didn't work. I only hated him more and more with a burning passion. One day I planned to escape this place with the first spell that I learnt, Invisible."

"That day was a stormy day. The thunder kept on roaring and the wind kept on pushing me back. I ran as fast as I could when I came out from the monastery. I stopped running and took a breath when I reached under a cliff. Just when I thought no one saw me get out from my room, a hand grabbed my shoulder and turned me around. Well you can probably guessed who grabbed my shoulder. I shook him off and punched him. I couldn't take it anymore and I shouted at him. Telling him how he was a nuisance and he could just go and die. I kept on scolding him and I said a lot of unpleasant things. I thought he would do something, but he just stood there, smiling at me." Wing smiled fondly at the memory.

"He walked towards me. I was prepared to give him another hit but what he did next was out of my expectations. He hugged me and said, 'I'm glad you finally talked, friend.' I was shocked. I tried to shake him off but he kept on saying 'Don't leave me. If you leave who else can I play with? Please stay here Wing, you're my precious friend.' I wanted to punch him, kick him and tell him that I'm not anybody's friend but I couldn't do it. He felt so warm. I cried in that stormy night. I was happy, I finally had a friend and after all those nightmares, I found someone to comfort me. After I've done crying, he released me and held my hands trying to get me back. But the world was cruel to me, almost too cruel. A lightning struck at the cliff and that part of the ground fell down. Eddy saw it was coming down fast and he pushed me away, leaving himself buried in that mountain of soil and rocks. I panicked. I dug away the soil but the rocks were too heavy for me to carry away. All I could do was watch and shout for help. When I saw Eddy's hand sticking out from that pile of rocks and soil, I broke down and my powers awaken, just like the powers you had inside of you."

Wing turned to his right and looked at Emily. Emily was in shock. She didn't know that someone had the same power as she did. She couldn't think of anything else but she wanted to keep listening to what happened next to Wing's story.

Wing could see it in her eyes that even though she was in shock, she still wanted to listen to his story. So he continued.

"My ability was unlocked and my message was sent telepathically throughout the whole of Mu Lung. It wasn't long before the sisters found us and dug Eddy out. After that, I fainted. I was exhausted from using that much power. But when I woke up, all I saw was Eddy's ridiculous face. I pushed away his face and sat up. Another person was also there. She was Master Abigail. I'll tell you a secret. Even though Master Abigail looks like a fat and old woman, she's actually only twenty-five years old and she is a real beautiful lady." Emily opened her eyes big in surprise when she heard that.

"She uses an illusion to keep away those men that were chasing for her love. She wanted kids but she never wanted to be in love with a man, you could say it was her trauma. No one in this monastery knew how she really looked like except for me, Eddy and now you. When I saw her face, my tears came down. She looked so much like my mother. She told me that she was actually my mother's sister. She wasn't hunted down because she left her house a long time ago. She couldn't believe it when she heard the news. She decided to take me in when she heard I was still alive. She crouched down and hugged me tightly. I also hugged her tightly and I cried as loud as I could."

"When I calmed down, she told me that I wasn't the only one that was hurt. Every single person in this monastery has a scar in their hearts including Eddy, but they faced their fears and pain. That is why I am here, to face my nightmares and walk forward. After that-"

"After that I spent four years trying to get him back to normal, which you can see right now, normal." Eddy crash-sit on the spot on Emily's left side.

"So, do you have confidence that you can pass tomorrow's test?" Wing smiled at him sarcastically.

"Of course I do, because I know my best friend will help me as a means of repaying his debt of letting me have a near-death experience." Eddy said.

"But I wanted to do more. I wanted to help other kids that have the same background as me to repay what Eddy has done for me once."

"Is that why you want to keep Emily to yourself the whole day?" Emily looked at Eddy.

"Is that bothering you, my perverted friend?" Emily looked at Wing.

"You're getting on my nerves Wing!" Emily looked back at Eddy again.

"You wanna go?" Emily looked at Wing again and tried to stop him.

"You think I'm afraid?"

"Let's find out, shall we?"

Both of them stood up and raise up their fists. When they were about to swing their fists at each other faces, Emily stood up and stretched both of her hands.

"Stop!" She said in a small voice. Both of them stopped their fists and looked at her. After she looked at Wing and Eddy before she sat down and covered her apple red face with her palms. Both Wing and Eddy put their hands down and laughed quietly. They sat down beside her and looked at the embarrassed girl.

"So our princess has finally spoken." Wing said.

"Your plan worked out perfectly." Eddy chuckled.

"Because I meant what I said."

"Why you-!"

"How- how did you know that there was a power in-inside of me?" She slowly put down her hands.

"The moment you saw this place. Only people with the power of the gods can see this place."

"G-Gods?"

"That is what it was described in the books; all I can find about my power is that it was described as the power of the Gods, a being with infinite power."

It seems that Emily understood as she lowered her head.

"This place that we are sitting in is the final resting place of The Silencer, the previous holder of the power of the Gods. But before that, he created this place to calm his mind and let go of all the regrets he had when he used his powers. It's also because he wanted to let the next holder of this power to seek their way into this place. I found it when Eddy and I were playing hide and seek."

"Yeah, I remember that. I thought you got eaten by the wall but instead you found this place to hide from Master Abigail." He smiled cunningly.

"Is…this power a curse?" Emily asked.

Even without saying, Wing could feel that she was thinking about her family. So he decided to give her his best answer that he had realized from using his own power.

"It's a curse, yes, but at the same time it's a blessing. With this power, we can help people, we can make their lives better and we can make the world a better place. This power which was given to us also lets us prevent anymore tragedies that has already happened to us to occur once more. 'One cannot see heaven without hell. One will not understand happiness without pain.' These were the last words of The Silencer."

The whole library became silent. Wing was pretty sure that Emily was now wondering whether to tell him her past or not.

"You don't need to force yourself Emily. If you don't want to say it, then don't."

"That's right! If anyone forces you to say something you don't want to, I'm gonna find this guy and kick his butt!"

Then it was a moment of silence again.

"When, I was five years old, I found out my power." Emily suddenly said. Wing and Eddy turned their heads and looked at her. She started talking about her past with soulless eyes.

"My parents were happy at first that my power could make my poor family rich. They wanted more and more and more and more. They become demons that only used me for their own greed. They locked me up so that I couldn't escape and they abused me if I didn't grant their wishes."

"One day, a group of bandits came to our village asking that if I could grant any wish. My parents denied. They tried to use their social status and bodyguards to get them out but they cut their bodyguards like they were paper. When I tried to run, the caught me and tied me up. They had also tied everyone in the village up. The bandits forced me to grant their wishes. My mother kept shouting that they won't get away from this and the next moment her head was cut off by one of the bandits." Emily's body started shaking.

"They said that every time that they demanded that I use my power and I refuse, they will kill one person. But I was too scared to say anything. So they kept killing and killing and hacking and slashing people down and kill kill kill kill KILL KILL-" Wing hugged her violently shaking body in an attempt to calm her down.

"T-they k-killed all of them. T-they burned down all the hou-houses. Everything wa-was on fi-fire. Everyone di-died be-because I said I wi-wished that they wo-would die and I-I could be fr-free." Her tears were continuously falling down like a waterfall.

"It's okay, it's alright. It's already over." Wing gently patted her head.

"That's right! Both of us will always be there when you need us, isn't that right Wing?" Eddy also hugged Emily tightly.

"That's right."

"You guys...*sniff*...will really…*sniff* be there for me?" Emily looked at them both with watery eyes.

"Until the end of time." Eddy smiled.

"Until the end of time." Wing chuckled.

Emily wiped away her tears and smiled for the first time.

"We should play icebreaker!" Eddy suggested. Wing nodded at him and both of them let Emily go. Following that, they performed a Seiza (formal Japanese sitting) in front of Emily.

"My name is Wing Spellmaster."

"And my name is Eddy Steins."

Emily said her name with confidence and hope that they could become best friends.

"My name, is Emily Valentine."

**To Be Continued**

**X**

**That is how it all began, on that fateful day. They unknowingly stepped onto a journey filled with despair and pain.**

**Well, it's not like they know about the future.**

**He stood and stared at the vast white space.**

**Light and Dark. They are two sides of the same coin, one cannot exist without another. The brighter the light, the darker the darkness.**

**I've searched for true justice and true evil, but to no avail. Will their future hold the answer for my question? Or they are just like any other and live for their own written destiny?**

**He disappears and leaves a white orb, a black orb and an equally coloured cross in black and white lying on the ground.**

* * *

**Soooooo, does the first part of the Black Mage's past interests you? I wish it did because I spent quite some time thinking about what to write.**

**Three reasons why I won't be posting any chapters for the next two or maybe three months.**

**First! Exam. Exam sucks and you all know that you need to study hard to get good grades.**

**Second! Holiday. After my exams is the holidays and I want to use my brain power for my games.**

**Third! One-shot. I'm thinking that I should write a Pokémon one-shot (and If it goes well, a series.) because (I think) most of the teenagers now should have played Pokémon before when they were kids and that includes me. I really missed playing Pokémon. Then one day, I had an idea. I won't be writing the classic Pokémon story like battling for Gyms and finally reaching the Champion. No. I'm thinking something different and original. Maybe there are others that have already wrote stories like the one I'm going to write but never mind! I just want to write it.**

**Lastly, thanks ApocalypticFang for beta reading for me. I really appreciate it because it makes this chapter perfect.**

**Note: I post the wrong file earlier! It was soooo embarrassing. Anyway, this one is the version I wanted to post. I apologize for my clumsiness. **

**Now, if there are anything that feels out of place in this chapter, please tell me in your reviews. See you next time!**


	6. Meister 4: The Dusk of The Old Age

**Hello everyone! It's been almost a year since I release my last chapter. I got a LOT of excuse I can come up with to say it's not my fault that I didn't quickly release this chapter, but I'm just gonna be honest, I love playing games. That's a joke, well, not completely. I'm having a hard time to maintain my passion to continue writing, sometimes the flame of passion burns fiercely but at the wrong time and sometimes the flame looks so diminished at the right time. Anyway, now that I've manage to finished this chapter before Christmas, this will be a Christmas present for everyone!**

**P/S This chapter hasn't gone through an error check, so if anyone wants to revise this chapter, please do PM**** m****e!**

"So, last place, huh?" Wing looks down at me with his usual furious eyes when I messed things up.

"And on top of that, you had the young Hero-Evan saves you from some devil-like person, which wants you dead."

"But that guy-" I try to fight back, but when my sight reaches his eyes, I take back that thought and swallow everything I want to say back.

I have been performing the Seiza on small rocks for an hour, this is the worst punishment yet. Luckily, those rocks aren't that pointy.

"Do you have anything to say for yourself, coming back in the last place with the dream to defeat the Black Mage?! Huh?!"He shouts those words to me madly.

"...I'm only at 125 level and I was already lucky to even get into the next round, shouldn't you be happy for me? All of them is 130 level and above!" I look at him with my irresistible watery cat eyes.

He opens his mouth, but nothing comes out of it, I'm guessing that my logic goes through him. He shuts his mouth and opens again.

"Alright. You just barely escaped your ultimate punishment."

"You mean you're giving me 'that' before I say all those things?!"I accidentally raise up my voice and I get a raging look in return. I immediately shut my mouth up.

"You might want to reconsider how you speak to me."

"...I'm sorry." I lower my head.

This silence is...awkward? Or maybe unbearable is more accurate. I hear a sigh before Wing starts talking again.

"Sigh. You still need to be punished. Run around the town until evening and don't even think of stopping to rest. You can go now."

"But-"

"No buts! You already disappoint me, are you asking me to do 'that' when I already changed my mind?! If you want to eat, come up with an idea that doesn't consist of stopping! End of discussion!" He walks out of the house and slam the door brutally.

Seriously...I stand up slowly and try to keep my balance after one hour of that hell. I guess I better be going, I don't need him to give me 'that'. I grab a bottle of water, bread and some money and stuff them all to my big pocket. I turn back and open the door, prepare to face one hell of a day.

X

**Yesterday, right after the preliminary rounds. The Forest That Disappears.**

"Who are you, how do you know who I am?" Eunwol looked at the hazel haired teenager leisurely walking towards him.

"Don't care about the small stuff, we aren't standing here to play 20 questions y'know. Let's talk about what you want. "He grins grimly at him.

"I don't talk to people that doesn't introduce themselves. Goodbye." Eunwol turns around and walked away.

"I am the Black Mage's son." The teenager said.

Eunwol twisted back and place his weapon on the teenager's throat at the blink of an eye. He looked at him as he was going to slice him to a million pieces.

"Dude that was just a joke. Though it manage to draw your attention." The teenager pushed away Eunwol's weapon while an annoyed expression appears on his face with his hand.

"What do you want?!"

"Ah, now that's more like it. Finally understand why I called you here. Let's get to the point." He smiled again and took a few steps back.

"Sadly, I cannot tell you my objective, not yet. If I tell you now then all my hard work will be in vain. For now, all I need is you going back to the one place you ever wanted, The Heroes."

"How could you benefit from this?"

"Well, that's a secret, again. The point is, you want back in the team and I need YOU back on that team! Isn't it great?! We both get what we want."

"And how exactly?" Eunwol looked at him with suspicious.

"Again, don't mind the small stuff. Just walk to the front gate of the palace and you're in! It's that easy! Though I'm pretty sure the other heroes will look at you with a frown face. Just act natural and gain their trust, do whatever they say, that will help me in so many ways. Just remember don't travel to other world no matter what or I'll have a big trouble in finding you all over again. Wow, I use so many 'again's in my speech! That sucks." He said as he scratches the back of his head.

"...Are you assuming that I will believe everything you said?"

"I'm very certain that you already know the answer." The teenager smirk.

"Don't you have a name?"

"Call me Draze if you want, but I prefer just D, sounds cooler."

"I hope you won't disappoint me, D." He turns back and walked away.

"And don't tell anyone about me too! It will be very problematic if you do! "The teenager shouted at the last minute. Eunwol just kept on walking. He assumes that he already heard that.

After making sure Eunwol won't turn back and look at him, he shows an annoyed expression as he talked to himself.

"Goddammit, that was annoying. I still need to use this form in the future, this is just great." Suddenly, the teenager's body became all blurry and turned into a teenager with silver hair tied at the back of his head.

"This is getting interesting, I can't wait to see the end of this story." He smiled and disappears.

X

Its past noon now. Still got a long 'time' to go. I haven't reached second round yet! I keep thinking useless stuff in my mind to keep me distracted from the thought of running until evening. This is just great. Why can't Wing understands that I'm already lucky that I even made it to the second round?

"Hey." A voice comes from the back of my left.

I look to my side and Evan is just right beside me! Technically he is running beside me.

"Why are you running?"

"I prefer to call it 'harsh training'." He smiles. Uaaa, I can't stop myself from blushing when I see his face.

"Well, after what happened yesterday, Luminous scolded me and give me one hellish night to commemorate. He made me do a lot of training like shooting magic spheres while sprinting on fast moving targets, push-up with Mir until Mir gets tired, which is, by the way, he doesn't get tired easily and other stuff until morning. Then, he forces me to run all day long around the town. What about you?" He drops a sweat at the back of his head when he sees the expression I'm making right now, which is a F5.

"I agree to his terms when I asked him to be my master since there is no one around that is better than him. Grendel is a good teacher, but he said my abilities are growing so fast that he could not teach me anymore. Luminous said that Freud was once his teacher, temporarily. Luminous didn't grasp all the teachings of Light but apparently Freud read all the books about light, so he taught him. Freud also hands him his Grimoire in case something unexpected happened, I bet he already foresees that Luminous will one day become my master. I wouldn't complain his way of teaching, even if it's pushing me to the limit. I know he is trying to help me and teach me because I'm still young, I still got a long way to go. The real reason he is punishing me right now is I fail to block the villain's attack yesterday when I could have easily repelled him. That is true, I'm not denying it. What about you? Why are you running?"

To be frank, I didn't think that Evan will tell me all his stuff to me when I barely even say anything. I'm still thinking about what I should say.

"By the way, what is your relationship with Wing? Is he your foster father?" He abruptly start the one topic I have no answer to.

"What?! No, of course not. He is my, well..."I'm starting to panic. I did not plan for this to happen!

"Does that question bothers you? If that's the case then you-"

"No! I mean, it doesn't bother me, I just realize that I also don't know what is my relationship with me and Wing. He took me in when my parents died, he took care of me, teaches me, give me the warmth of being in a family but he refuses me to call him father, of course I'm not planning to call him that either. It feels like he has a responsibility to watch over me but sometimes he keeps his distance from me like he is afraid of losing me. What am I even saying? You don't keep a distance with someone that you afraid you will lose-"

"That is true." He look at me and turn back his head.

"What?"

"Imagine, if you have a one of a kind vase, you would do anything to prevent it from breaking right? The best way to make sure the vase doesn't break is not to get close because one would think that they would accidentally break it. In the end, they will regret it for their foolish mistake. Get what I mean?"

"But I barely even know him. He just raise me without telling me the reasons, it makes me wonder that who I really am. I never see him in my life before. The weirder part is that all the old villagers seem to be happy when I decide to live with Wing like they were glad that it happened."

"Is that so? That is weird indeed, but does that really matters to you?"

"What do you mean?"

"Does knowing who Wing truly is and the truth behind your connection with him important? Does it makes you happy if you knew?"

"I...don't know. It just doesn't feel right not knowing the person you live with for the past five years."

"Do you feel happy while you live with him?"

"Yes, of course."

"Then that is all that matters isn't it?" He smiles.

Evan seems so mature than I do. Maybe I am overthinking this. I should be happy with what I have now instead of splitting hair.

"I guess that is not untrue."

X

Eunwol stops at the front of the palace. A lot of things pass through his mind, most of them includes what to say when he meet his friends. He takes a long breath and make his way to the entrance.

"Halt, stranger. What business do you have coming here?" Said by one of the two guards standing beside the gate.

Eunwol did not expect this to happen. Then again, the teenager didn't tell him what to do, he just told him to come here. So Eunwol just standing there staring at the guard with cold sight.

"Wait, isn't he the guy that we are supposed to let in?" The second guard said.

"Since you mention it, he does looks like the guy in the picture. Please wait a minute."

The first guard takes out a piece of rough paper with a portrait on it. He compares the portrait on the paper with Eunwol by looking at him and the paper a few times. Then, the guard put back his paper and opens the gate. Eunwol walk through the gate without saying anything. Apparently the security here is tighter than he thought. The distance between the gate and the palace is quite far away and there are many guards along the way. Eunwol forces himself not to think about the reason behind the tight security and try to keep his cool.

He reaches the front of the main door of the palace. As he tries to knock the door, the door opens from the inside. The door is opened by a maid. The maid informs Eunwol that his presence has been expected and she will take him to the meeting room.

"Ah, our guest has arrived." Said Queen Ione as he steps into the room. The maid takes her leave and closes the door.

"So, he is the one?" A familiar voice enters Eunwol's ear.

The one that said that is Luminous. There is only the queen, Luminous and Eunwol in this room.

"You might be thinking why aren't the other heroes aren't here with me." He looks at Eunwol with a cold gaze, it even shivers Eunwol down to his spine.

"Emotionless as always." Eunwol thought.

"We were asked to show you this when you arrive, we will answer your questions after this," The Queen said. Eunwol nod and he sit right across Luminous.

The Queen takes out a bottle and removes the cork from it. She puts the cloudy bottle at the end of the table and sits right beside Luminous.

"Alright. Queen Ione, Luminous and later Eunwol. This message is separated into two. The first part is to tell that Queen Ione and Luminous that a guest will be arriving here in the afternoon and they should not tell the others about this. Now that the first part has been played, time for the second part." A cloud flies out from the bottle and said. It shows the face of Eunwol for a moment, not after the cloud becomes blurry again. A static voice came from the cloud starts talking.

"Testing, testing one two three. Okay. Ehem. Hello! Welcome to my special radio show, it's about wormhole and bathroom peeping-

"Would you just quit it, Ray! Just do your damn job so I don't have to clean up your mess afterward! I'm sick of editing your crappy nonsense so that whoever that is listening can know what in the world you are saying! This is the last time already so STOP SCREWING UP!"

"He does that."

The Queen said it the moment Eunwol wanted to say something. A few drops of sweat come down at the back of his head.

"Is this guy for real?" Is what Eunwol is thinking right now.

"Okay, take two. Firstly, all of our guest are here and I apologize for what just happened, my colleague is a little bad-tempered and that is totally his fault."

"His lie suck." All three of them thought at the same time.

"Initially I wouldn't make Eunwol come here but he is the only one that is capable of this job. Queen Ione and Luminous, the person that is sitting across you is Eunwol, one of the six heroes."

Luminous shows no respond after hearing that, in contrary, Queen Ione was astonish. It surprised Eunwol that Luminous didn't have any reaction, he was a little happy but at the same time a little suspicious.

"Aren't shock to hear this Luminous? Not even a little?"

"I'm not dull enough to not notice him helping us out for the last five years in the shadows. I have my doubts, though it's clearly he isn't an enemy. Besides, it seems too unrealistic for the seal stone to activate without someone die on the spot, or worse. His existence prove my theory was correct." Luminous explained.

The static voice continues.

"Eunwol is what people would call a Forgotten Hero. As the name implies, any memories containing his existence will be wiped because of the effects of the seal stone, including when he travelled to another world. Any questions so far?"

The room is filled with silence.

"Sur la partie suivante (onto the next part), we'll start with the reason why Eunwol is sitting here. In the not so distant future, you are needed in a situation where you need to fight in a space between two worlds. As for Luminous and the Queen, since one is a part from the Black Mage and the other has mysterious power of the royal lineage, both of you will remember him even when he travels through world and he will need someone to assist him in the times of need after you finish listening to this recording. Plus, since the Transcendent of Time has been passed down to the Zero twins from Rhinne, the condition for the seal has been weakened. Why not tell other people about Eunwol? Excellent question. When Eunwol enters the space between two dimensions it will trigger the memory wiping but at the same time it won't. It will create a paradox and those who remember him will have their mind devastated. The effects will not apply to Luminous and the Queen because this recording contains a "mind shield" chanting spell in it, which is why my voice sound like this. So Eunwol has to do everything in his power to NOT get seen by the other people. I already wiped the guard's and the maid's memory about you so they will be found."

"So, what's in it for me?"

"Pardon?"

"Why would I want to help you when I can just be with the others and fight the Black Mage. And the hole, you could do it yourself isn't it? Even if you can't, the Transcendent of Time can do better than me."

"As you said yourself, I can do this by myself but I can't, if I did, you could say it will cause a series of very bothersome problems. As for the Zero twins, I can't risk them doing that because if they fail the world will go instant K.O., both of the worlds."

"So, that's why you choose me? Because even if I fail and die no one will care about me?!" Said Eunwol furiously as he stands up.

"No. I choose because you would not fail. I can predict the future. For a second there I thought you don't care about Maple World anymore."

"What if your prediction fails you? And for your information, I don't."

"Come again?"

"I rather finding solutions for this curse then care about all of this when you give me a bunch of excuses not to do it yourself. You don't know how I feel for the past five years, living like a ghost where anyone won't remember you! That is what I get from keep helping doing these jobs! I get nothing! I'm sick of living like this, getting my existence erased again and again! You have no idea what it feels!"

"That is why you will take this job because I was once like you, but worse than you can ever imagine. The flaming passion never goes out. The more pain you feel, the more you want to do what Freud did for you once, to prove to yourself that you are still alive, to want to stand beside Freud again. The past is what people have left, lost in the stream of time, you need to walk out from all of it and take a step forward to reach out more, wouldn't you agree, The Forgotten Hero?"

"...Is there any chance that anyone will remember me after finishing this job?"

"I'm afraid not, at least not in two years' time."

"...Is that so?"

"I'm sorry."

Silence fills up the room, the beating heart of Eunwol can be heard clearly with a rhythm of sadness.

"Now for the main point. Would the Queen and Luminous be so kind to leave this room for a while? What I'm going to tell Eunwol now is confidential, please understand that if both of you stay it might cause an uproar."

Queen Ione and Luminous stand up and walk out the room in a slow pace. The second the door is close, the voice starts to talk again.

"Now, I need you to listen closely..."

X

"Look who do we have here? If it isn't Mr Fancy Mage." Gere said as he sees Wing arrives in front of him with teleport.

"I'm getting too...old for this Gere." Said Wing with slightly shy expression.

"C'mon, I live longer than you and you know it."

"..."

"Alright, alright, enough of jokes. Here-"He stands up, turns to his back, opens up a secret door on his Smithing Anvil and removes a dark blue coat (reference to Blue Exorcist's coat, cause I like it) along with a katana.

"I did like you asked me to, craft a one-of-a-kind evolving equipment, I even had to ask Intaglio to help me perfect this magical overall. I. HAD. TO. ASK. INTAGLIO. TO. HELP. ME." Said Gere when he puts both of the items rudely on Wing's hand.

"I can hear you Gere! Don't even think that you can create something like that without me!" Intaglio said loudly from he is standing, right beside the Jewellery Machine.

"Yeah, whatever! (Whisper) How many times do I have to tell him that we don't compete in Ardentmill! Well, you got what you want, make sure you keep Emily happy! I won't give you a discount even if you are my loyal customer."

"Will 100B Mesos do?"

"65B will do since you gather all those rare ingredients all by yourself. And the Rune Stones, not to forget them."

When Wing was about to take his leave, he notices that the katana is giving off a majestic and overpowering aura. He observes the katana closely, not before he shrinks down the large coat with compress magic and fit it into his pocket.

"Gere, this katana-"

"It is my greatest masterpiece. It was, at least. I created it when my master, The Master of Smithing before me decides to pass down the title to me. I went on a journey of a lifetime to find all the legendary ingredients, the ones that it has never been found and the ones that are nearly impossible to obtain. I collected dragon essence and skin from the once strongest dragon in the whole Maple World, since I defeated it; I dig and searched for the largest and most powerful ores; I also collected Rune Stone that only appears when I carry the Heartstone to the center of Kritias. I crafted the blade under the sun of the Scorching Day while the sheath under the moonlight of total lunar eclipse. I infused both the blade and sheath with the blood of Pink Bean, enabling the user to fully draw out his or her potential to the max and doubles the user's strength, speed, accuracy and so on."

"I…didn't know you were so-"

"Awesome? Ha-ha, there is a lot of things you don't know about me."

"I can't accept this, this is the work of your heart and soul, I couldn't possibly accept this."

"Just take it, it's just gathering dust anyway and no one else except you and Emily can wield it, it is too powerful. I didn't think of making it suitable to be used since I want to prove that my skills are better than my master's. Now go, it's almost evening. This will definitely surprise Emily. I wish I can be there to see her reaction."

"…Thank you, Gere."

"Not destroying this place is already the best you can give me, consider this as a thank you gift. Don't just standing around, go and make that girl of yours happy!" He laughs.

A slight blush appears on Wing's face and gone. He turns back and teleports.

Gere sighs happily and sits down on his little bench.

"I hope that his happy days will continue."

X

I slow down my pace until I finally. My panting steadily come to an end after I stand still to recover my stamina. I stretch my hands up high while closing my eye, trying to loosen up my body.

I open my eyes again, put down my hands, and then stroll along the street. Ah~ It's finally over. I'm gonna feel the pain tomorrow for sure.

"Emily." I respond instantly when I heard Evan call my name. He went and buy some food after evening arrives. He strides in my direction from the front while holding two steaming meat buns.

"Here, take one. These are really delicious, at least according to the people that are buying it. The parade will be beginning shortly, we should get moving before it gets crowded." He skips to my right after I receive the bun with my right hand before I chomp it in a flash.

Like being stuck by a lightning, the moment I start chewing, the flavour that flows into my mouth is something I have never tasted before. It is so tasty that I can't even know how to describe it.

"Wow, this is one luscious meat bun. I didn't expect it to be this appetizing!" Evan comments after he took his first bite. We start to march towards the Inn after he said that.

"I totally agree with you." I devour the meat bun in one go, and that's it. Finished. I regret it a little bit, however, it was pleasurable, so I don't care that much. It seems like Evan is still enjoying his food. When I glance at him, he looks so hot. The sweat that is coming down from his chest is making his white shirt half transparent, allowing me to take a peek on his front torso. I quickly turn to my left before Evan notices I'm blushing because I glimpse at his body.

"You seem to be quite an athlete despite being a girl." Evan suddenly says.

"I spend the last five years training to increase my stamina, so this much of running won't be enough to kill me." Evan snicker after I complete my sentence.

"Is that so?"

"How about you? Although being a mage you didn't even try to stop and catch a breath, not even once."

"It's true that mage doesn't have much stamina however that only applies to average mage, those that are trained under skilful master understand that if our magic are being sealed, at least we need something else to substitute our spells when it comes down to it. In addition to that, there is a special method to reduce fatigue while sprinting or running passed down from the ancient mages. Unlike Battle Mage, we depend on mana more than anything else, that is why we don't really do much physical training or our mana vessel will be suppressed by muscles."

No wonder all mages (except Battle Mage) looks pretty thin or skinny. The thought of Evan having muscles is pretty disgusting too, the way he looks right now is much better. He is charming at the same time quite cute, that is what makes him even more attractive than Phantom (at least to me he is).

"Is that so? I never heard anything like that." I replied.

"Isn't Wing a mage too? He didn't tell you about this?"

"Wing rarely says anything about himself, which is why we had that conversation a few hours ago remember?" I cross my arm in front of my chest with an annoyed pout.

"Then could you tell me what kind of magic did he use? He has shown you his magic before, right?" Evan asks carefully while slightly tilting his head to his left.

"I have only witnessed his gun skills before, I never see him using anything else but his dual guns. Though I have no idea why he isn't a pirate."

"Wing uses a gun…? That is kinda weird." He lowered his head, thinking about what I said earlier, while touching his chin with his thumb and index finger.

When I realize how far we have traversed when we're talking to each other, we already arrived in front of the Inn.

"Ah!" Evan abruptly shouts out as he raises his head up and snap his finger with his middle finger and thumb. Evan stops his movement when he notices me startled by his sudden action.

"I'm sorry, I don't mean to scare you." He apologized.

"I get scared easily, it's not your fault." I nervously explain while shaking both of my hands. It got awkward for a moment there. I open my mouth again and asked,

"Did you remember something?" I hope my question is correct to ask.

"Yes. I remember there is another kind of mage other than the ordinary mage and Battle Mage. They uses range weapon to cast their spells by carving markings onto their weapons or chant a series of spells on it. Long story short, they can use either guns, bows, crossbows or throwing stars, but still can use magic at the same time. This way they don't have to waste time completing the spell's condition and at the same time, deals more damage by using arrows, bullets or throwing stars. Their only weakness is that they can't cast large scale magic because it has a limit of how many spells they can pre-cast on it, unless the user can identify every single one of his or her ammunition that has a large variety of different separated spells. If they CAN do it, they can summon any size of magic circles to initiate their attacks."

"Then why would Corsair, Bow/Crossbow Master and Night Lord exist in the first place if mages can do something like that?"

"Your question is almost the same as asking 'Why would any other class exist if there is already a mage class?'. Allow me to explain.

There are three main reasons for that. But before that, I should mention that mage is still a mage, they can't go and use other class's skill while using magic, or else their mana will be sapped in a tremendous speed.

The first and foremost reason is not everyone can use magic efficiently, so they classify people's ability into four main types-STR, DEX, INT, and LUK. Since the founding of these four main stats, people has been researching for new skills in order to suit people with different abilities. They establish rules to prevent people from using the wrong skills, causing their bodies to break down. I'm not denying the fact that people can learn more than two sets of skills, that is, if they met all the requirement to master those skills.

Another reason is young adventurers prefer using new skills or creating their own unique ones. Humans tend to prefer using new things and not stick to the old ways, the skills form in the early days is pretty powerful yes, but we'll get bored of it sooner or later. Those teachings won't disappear either because many of the modern skills are based on these techniques, one could say these ancient skills are the spine of today's advancement.

Last but not least, mana consumption is a major concern while choosing what skills to learn. Mana can use in many ways and it is not limited to magic only. Mana is the flow of this world, things that reach their life span will decompose and turn into mana. The residents of this world have long grasp the way to control mana, by using their own mana to transform the mana of the flow to change into anything they desire. As long as one have imagination, mana can be used in many, many style.

To conclude, we usually won't use two skills at once solely because it takes a lot of time to combine two different styles of attacks along with the time needed to master the basics of those skills. It will also confuse the flow of mana inside your body, which ultimately lead to the destruction of your own body. Is that enough for you to understand, Emily?"

[A sweat appear on the back of Evan's head when he turns to his left and see Emily's head is puffing out smoke while her eyes turn into a spiral]

That was way too much to digest. Although I understand what he was saying, it's a little hard to keep track what he was explaining.

"Emily, y-you alright? Did I say too much?"

"No…" I didn't realize what I said until the next moment when Evan clearly got even panic.

I quickly shake my head for a few short seconds and turn to my right, facing him and clear this misunderstanding.

I try to look him in the eye, however it is still too embarrassing for me. I aim my sight towards the other side and said,

"I-It's fine. I never thought about those things you said just now before, it was really eye opening. Thank you." I can feel my face blushing when I thanked him.

"You're welcome. I'm glad you appreciate it."

Then there's the awkward silence. This is so killing me.

"Emily, you're back-"

My body freeze when Wing's voice come from the Inn. This is bad this is bad this is bad. If he found out that I was running with Evan all day long I wonder what mad will he be?

"…You want to tell me who is the teenager in front of you?" I can't stop my body from shuddering when I think about the reactions Wing might have. I glance at Evan's face, hoping that he could help me find a way out from this situation. But I lift my hopes too high. He looks like a kid getting excited because his idol is standing not far from him. He swiftly twist to his left and start introducing himself.

"My name is Evan, nice to meet you. I'm a fan of yours after seeing you in action when-"

"Oh, I remember. You're that brat that is hiding behind a collapse building."

Evan totally got rejected. I can feel his depression even though I'm not looking at him.  
"When are you going to twist you head and look at me, **Emily**?"

I guess I have no choice but to put up my best act so that Wing wouldn't ask anything about my punishment. I turn my body towards Wing direction in a stylish way.

"Hi Wing-"

"I'm gonna guess you are running with Evan for the past few hours and you're desperately trying to cover that up with your usual Trying-To-Hide-Something act." Wing said coldly.

I feel like being petrified the moment he expose my lame lie. Wing ignore me and say,

"It's time to go home. I got a surprise for you." I immediately return to normal when he mention "surprise". But…

"Why do I need to go home?"

Wing lower his head and let out a sigh. He walk towards me while raising his head up. He stops a few centimetre away from me and lightly knock my head.

"Have you forgotten? You need training to prepare the next round of the competition, in case you **lose**. You still have three months to prepare your fight against the other competitors. Or do you wish to give up your dream to defeat the Black Mage? Hmm?"

Sometimes Wing is so annoying, I really want to punch him in the face now.

"I already took all of your things in the Inn back to the house. Let's not waste any more time." He turn my body so that I stand side-to-side with him. Right before he uses the return scroll—

"Can I come with you?" Evan build up his courage and throw out that question precipitously **(not sure about this word)**.

"What?"

"I have a lot of questions I wanted to ask you, unfortunately I have my duties starting from tomorrow and I don't have time to see you again-"

"That's none of my business." Wing is really cold blooded. I can't bear to listen to this conversation anymore. It seems like Evan is not giving up either.

"I know it's rude-"

"It is rude. I don't have time to waste on you."

In the end, it can't be helped, I'll just have to say something. I tug Wing's jacket to draw his attention. I whisper in his ear,

"Didn't you say you want to try to be nice with the Heroes? This is your chance! Don't lecture me when you can't overcome your own weakness." Wing give me a dreadful look and agree Evan's request.

"You can come. If you annoy me, one way or another, I will instantly teleport you back to the palace, understand?" It feel like Wing is dealing with a kid.

"Yes sir!" And Evan is acting like a kid. I wonder how Mir is doing without his Master beside him.

In the training ground beside the palace.

"Achoo!"

"Is something wrong Onyx Dragon Mir?" Chase ask.

"It's nothing! I can still keep on going! And please just call me Mir!" Mir's sneeze didn't affect his battle training with the Beast Tamer's animals.

"Is that so? We'll call it a day after 30 minutes, Onyx Dragon Mir."

"Stop calling me like that!"

X

"I'm going into the house to prepare something." After Wing said that, he walks into the house. Evan and I are still standing on the same spot when we teleport back here. Evan obviously has something to say, but he is unexpectedly shy.

The dusk is almost over. As the sun goes down, and the creatures slumber, the magic in the night emerges, giving those who lives in its domain a breath of life.

"Um, thank you, Emily, for convincing Wing." He really sounds like a child.

"It's nothing."

Then there's the lull.

"Umm, why is…"

"I know what you are trying to ask. Why did he have so much hostility against you? I don't know myself, but it seems that Wing clash with the heroes once in the past for reasons unknown. He told me that he wanted to try accepting the heroes, so consider this as his first step of overcoming his hate."

"Is that so?"

Wing got out of the house and uses his telekinesis magic to spread some weird powder to create a five meter radius magic circle in between the two of us.

"O Hecate, et Magia dea Nox, conjuro te potestatem mittere Inanis fero.

(Oh Hecate, Goddess of Night and Magic, I summon thee power to cast the spell of Void.)"

The moment Wing finish chanting the spell, the moon completely disappears from our sight, the powder starts glowing phosphorescently.

"What is this Wing?" I ask him when he enters the magic circle.

"None of your concern."

"It's an ancient spell that summons power from a being of another dimension. The spell Wing just used now is—"

"One more word and I'll knock you out." His words pierce through Evan's heart.

I feel bad for him. That aside, I wonder what Wing is up to, setting up a magic circle and casting spell in an unknown language, to me at least.

"Emily." I bound towards him when he calls for me, wondering what actually he is trying to do.

Once I step into the circle, it illuminates turquoise light so strong, I had to cover my eyes for a moment before it fades away. I stride on until I'm three steps away from Wing.

"I've got a present for you." Smiling at me grimly, I hope this isn't another sarcasm of his. To my surprise, he actually means it. With a wave of his hand, a mini tornado appears between us both, when the tornado vanishes, a katana comes into sight. It is like nothing I have ever seen before. The body of the katana has the color of Oxford Blue, with + at the top of the scabbard followed by X and the pattern repeats until the other end of the scabbard, four +'s and X's; the length of the katana is around 80cm and 1.2inches wide. The thin outline of the +'s and X's are white in color while the inner part of it is painted in Lust (**a type of red**). The katana hovering in the air slowly turns to the other side to reveal the same drawings on it. The silver Kojiri* reflects the moonlight glisteningly shining down on it; the Ghostwhite dragon scale Samegawa* is wrapped by Jet (**a type of black**) coloured Tsuka-Ito*; the Tsuba* takes the shape of an eight petal flower, about one cm from the center. As I stare agape at this marvellous katana, Wing announces a gleeful statement.

"From today onwards, the Kagu-tsuchi* is yours. Take good care of it." He smiles (seemingly) genuinely. This is the best gift EVER!

By just looking at the katana, it emits such powerful aura that I can feel it in my bones indicating this sword can only be wielded by a one-in-a-million Master Swordsman. It makes me think twice about being qualified enough to use it. But this is my chance, my only chance to truly free this world from the Black Mage. So, without any more hesitation, I grab the sword away from its position like plucking a fruit from a tree.

To be honest, I thought something would happen, but…

"So, you didn't read the books." His voice turns cold hard.

"What?" I gradually let down my right arm with the katana in my grip. I must've looked like an idiot because I stare at him with a blank expression and the way he watches me resembling a teacher about to scold his student.

"'When bestowed an up-tier katana, used or new, its master shall grant it a name, to recognize and to give gratitude for the blessing of an instrument of battle'. Paragraph 3, line-"

"12!" Luckily I read the books, even though they are extremely annoying for a short period of time after Evan left, especially the part about giving names to the katana. It's quite a let-down that the sentence applied 'used or new' when rest of the sentence sounds cool. Wing takes in a deep breath (I was about to close my eyes for the worst), and let it out slowly. What a relief! For a moment there I thought I'm gonna get a scolding.

"Apparently you didn't disappoint me, perhaps I was wrong to assume you didn't do as I ordered. But!" He bends forward (and slightly downward) his body with his forefinger pointing at my face.

"I know you obviously barely touched the books, I'll let it slip this time." He stand straight back up leaving me with a drop of sweat at the back of my head. Ok, it's time for serious business. If I recall correctly, there is one ritual for this special-type sword.

"You should know, I didn't give you this sword because you need a weapon, not the main reason, rather because 1) it might take years to harness your power to its maximum capacity and this is the fastest way to do it, 2) this is the ONLY katana able to withstand your power without breaking. Both reasons are possible solely for the fact that its ability to sap prolific amount of mana from the wielder. No one dares to even touch it except, of course, its creator-Gere."

*Kojiri=the end cap of the scabbard or the protective fitting at the end of the scabbard.

*Samegawa=the ray skin used to cover or wrap the handle.

*Tsuka-Ito= the wrapping of the tsuka, traditionally silk but today more often cotton and sometimes, leather.

*Tsuka=the hilt or handle of a Japanese sword.

*Tsuba=a round or occasionally, square'ish, guard at the end of the grip of bladed Japanese weapons

*Kagu-Tsuchi=God of fire in Japanese culture

"Gere made this?! Wow, I thought it was made by some sort of legendary blacksmith and place the sword in the most deadly land in this world, waiting for a new master…"I am planning to keep on saying, though Wing's expression tells me it was too far-fetched.

"Gere crafted this sword while he was young, it was a long, long time ago, so long that his 'Legendary Master Craftsman' title was lost in time. Nevertheless, do you want to keep on chatting or do you want to initiate the Blood Ritual?" The moonlight slowly shines on Wing, then me, then the entire circle.

"I think I'm ready." I take in a breath and let it out confidently.

"Your confidence is doubtful. Explain, what is the Blood Ritual?"

I answer the question in my not so shivering voice, "It's like constructing a formal contract with the sword, to prove and to register I am and will be its master until I longer exist. All I have to do is let a drop of my blood on the sheath of the blade." I put up a strained smile, hoping I didn't get it wrong.

"Correct, but, why does the Blood Ritual need to exist in the first place? You could just carve your name on it, or use magic to cast a bond spell to make sure nobody can touch it."

"Err…that's because…mmm…." I couldn't think of anything, this is torturing me.

"Because it's not just a sword, this sword particularly. If a weapon or an item is created by using parts of the body of a very conscious beast, even after its death, its partial soul lingers on the severed part. Usually it won't just possess someone or haunt someone because it is just soul without any feeling or thought in it, unless the beast harbours strong negative feelings before it dies. The soul may be empty, but it is still, 'functioning'. Like Evan and Mir, in the beginning, Mir, still in its egg has an empty soul. After they formed the dragon pact, Mir's soul becomes emotional, he can think, decide and act. Of course comparing a living thing to a sword in not very appropriate, the point is, if you can not only wield the sword as part of your body also link the conscious of the sword with yours, the power you can unleash it beyond imaginable. There's more than just a few benefit from it, it all depends on how you react and how you care for it."

Never mind the fact that Wing just ignores me for unable to spit out an answer, not in any way I ever thought about treating a weapon like it's alive. I know there are many people cares very much for their weapon, still I, not in the least, thought we could see a weapon in this kind of perspective. To be honest, I feel happy because now I know I can… I… I'm lost for words to express what I have longed for. Ok,

"I'm ready." I said it with full of enthusiasm and determination. (Wing is quite taken aback by Emily's rudeness for not letting him finish what he has to say, yet after noticing her tenacity, he lightly nodded his head, turned to his back and walk out of the circle.)

I take a glimpse at Evan, doesn't seem he heard our conversation, though he looks like he have knowledge of what I'm about to do. He put up an encouraging smile and a thumbs up for me.

The moonlight seems to become brighter as I shift my sight back to the katana. My mind starts to operate at an intense speed for a few seconds, I lift up my right and left hand, switch the katana to my left hand, use the power inside me to create a small wound on my right thumb, and my mouth begin to move.

"I, Emily, have bestowed upon the Kagu-Tsuchi, shall grant it the name of Susanoo as the first term of the Ritual; You will aid me, obey me and not betray me to triumph all battles as the second term of the Ritual; For you and I shall become one, behind the battlefields in the life we share, you will address me as Em and I will call you Rex for the purpose of deepening our bond and be victorious on the battleground as the third term of the Ritual. Now, the three terms have been set. A drop of blood, as the seal of the Blood Ritual, will be sacrificed and last until my dying breath." The drop of blood leaves my thumb and reaches the surface of the sheath.

A wave of light shine through the entire sword and the position the blood drop as its centre. I thought there were more to come but,

"Hm. Nothing else happen. I wonder what will happen if I remove the blade from its sheath." The exact moment I did what I said, my conscious fades away…

X

"Emily!" Before Wing could stop her, an explosion of wind just burst out from the small gap between the mouth of the sheath and the Tsuba. The raging gust keep pouring out even more when Emily's hands did not stop. Wing barely holds himself on the ground.

"Dammit! She really didn't read those damn books! Sello! (Seal!)" He shouts, points his closely pack forefinger and middle finger at the magic circle. The magic circle lights up so brightly the entire sky was covered in turquoise markings from the circle. The gust was significantly lessened, but kept on growing as the movement of Emily's hand removing the blade from its scabbard.

He pours in even more power to strengthen the suppression of the raging wind. Odds are against him, because when he took another look at Emily, small ultramarine cracks starts to appear on her arms and her soulless expression face.

"Shit!" For the first time in so many years, he felt panic. His heart understands this situation clearly, still he holds back his power. He knows if he refuse to act now, there will be severe consequences, but he can't. The fear of using that power dwells inside him was too overwhelming, even at the cost of the one he loves, he won't even consider as the last resort.

Just when he thought there was no other way, a shadowy figure swiftly makes way towards the opposite side of the circle where Wing is standing.

"Sello!" Evan mimicked Wing's action thus resulting another enormous decrease in the overflowing wind. Though his aid was influential, the cracks on Emily's body emerge even more and larger.

As much as Wing hate to do this, he didn't have much choice left, so he opened his mouth and shout as loud as he can at Evan because of the huge noise made by the strong flow of wind.

"Evan! I'm going to remotely control Emily's hand to make her return the blade back to its sheath! You'll have to hold the binding all by yourself! Can you do it?!"

Upon hearing his name being called by his idol, Evan smiled while giving a definite answer.

"Hell yeah!"

"On my mark! 3! 2! 1! Now!" Wing, without sparing any time, released his part of the binding and use telekinesis spell on Emily. Evan, on the other hand, pump in almost all of his mana to fortify the binding, causing serious nosebleed.

"**HAA!**" Wing telekinetically force Emily's hands to slide the blade back into its scabbard in one go. A loud bang was heard the moment the blade is completely inside the sheath and the gust of wind instantly vanish. The cracks on Emily's body subsided and she fell to the ground.

Wing teleported to her side, holding her body before it could come in contact with the ground. He sends pulses of mana into Emily's body to check if there are any abnormality in her body by grabbing her hand. He sighed in relief knowing no damage has been made. Wing was so focused on Emily that he didn't notice Evan slunk towards him with extreme fatigue on every part of his body and stopped before he starts to talk.

"Wing, is Emily-" Wing twists his head to his back instantaneously when he heard Evan's voice. He pulls out his gun, aims at Evan's forehead and pulled the trigger.

"Almost forgot about him. Better send him back to the castle." He shot another couple of bullets around Evan's sleeping body, creating a portal connected to the castle. Evan sank into the portal and the portal closes, not before Wing remembers to wipe his memory about this incident.

"I hope those bastards won't come and investigate what happened." He soliloquize to himself. With Emily on his back, he stride forward until he reaches the door, unlocks it, and enters the house.

X

**[…Didn't see that coming]**

…Hmrgh…Who…?

**[You're weaker than I thought, Em.]**

…What…? Who…are…you calling…Em…?

**[This kind of conversation is not going to take us anywhere, let me give you a little jump start.]**

"Ouch!" I immediately open my eyes, jumping out of my bed, or at least I thought I could. My body won't budge! What's happening?! Luckily I can still move my head, so I turn my head towards the voice I heard. I could hardly see anything because the lamp on the table isn't turned on.

**[Let me help you switch on the lamp.]**

The sudden bright light makes me squint, when I adapt to the brightness, I slowly widen my eyes. I've seen a lot of different species in Wing's old encyclopaedia before, but the "thing" standing on my katana laying on the table is something, or "someone" I never encounter. It has the ears of an elf though its height is only about 6 inches. His eyes (I'm pretty confident it's a "He"), however, are of a dragon's, with pupils of teal; a few draconic scales on both lower part of his cheeks; a row of sharp teeth across his mouth as he smiles; pointy sky blue hair with red on the edge. He wears a really awesome jacket, zigzag across the middle of the jacket with crimson covering the upper half and black covering the lower half. The hood of the jacket covering his head is black, it also has a pair of fox ear on the hood with its inner part coloured in crimson. The white coloured drawing on his black shirt underneath the jacket which covers the entire front part of his shirt is like Xenon's gauge but with only ten bars. His cargo pants (a little over the knees) design is the same as his jacket, only the colours are switched, black on the upper half, crimson on the lower half and zigzag across the middle. The zigzag on both his jacket and pants are crimson on the black side and black on the crimson side, much like two different colour of zigzags were put side to side. **[(To be honest, if you can understand what I wrote, I'm impressed.)]**

His shoes are, wait, he doesn't wear shoes, just standing bare-feet with his hands in the pocket of the jacket.

I struggle to sit up, but my body doesn't have the energy to move at all, like it has all been sapped away-

**[Because it is.]**

I divert my focus back to the little boy standing on the katana. Is it him that is talking to me?

**[Firstly, I am not a 'boy', I am much older than you are, Master. Secondly, yes, I am the one that has been talking to you.]**

Who are you?

**[I am your partner, or if you prefer the term servant.]**

You…you're the spirit of the Kagu-Tsuchi!

**[My name now is Susanoo, which you have given to me during the Blood Ritual. Kagu-Tsuchi is now my former name and I would appreciate it if you do not mention it ever again. Now, about your condition, you are now recovering from the aftermath of immerse energy output from last night which almost crushed your body. You slept for 24 hours straight, in case you were wondering.]**

Okay…So, I should call you Rex since we aren't on the battlefield right?

**[That is certainly correct, Em.]**

I'm feeling very excited! Finally someone besides Wing to talk to! Still, I know you're holding back, no need to use formal speech. I'm assuming we are talking telepathically?

**[Of course. Once again, I apologize for not able to stop this incident from happening.]**

Yeah, about that, I completely lost conscious when I pull out the blade, I mean, you from your, how should I say it, erm…

**[I might be a spirit of this katana, the katana is not my body. I am born from it, but this is my body, an illusory form of the energy of the katana. It has been a few hundred years since I was awakened, like a person that has not eaten for a long time, I got greedy and consume every bit of power that is flowing into the katana. I did not foresee your power would overflow compare to normal circumstances where my wielder would die instantly. Your guardian managed to return the blade into the sheath, or else both of us will not be here chatting.]**

Guardian…So Wing saved us both huh?

**[Do you have any other information would you like to acquire?]**

Hmm, I can't think of anything else to ask. How about this, can you or I know what each other is thinking without purposely communicate telepathically?

**[As a matter of fact, yes. Like right now, you want me to tell you everything that you don't know about me.]**

This is cool. But, why can't I know what you are thinking?

**[Have you forgotten the third term of the Ritual already? I am disappointed.]** He smirks at me. I feel kinda annoyed, but it's good to know he has expression.

**[Perhaps I should smirk more often Em.]** Oh right! He knows what I'm thinking, dammit!

**[Let us continue your question. "For you and I shall become one", this sentence said it all. I am a part of you, a part of your conscious yet a separate soul. To put it simply, I am your subconscious. Separate conscious but part of whole.]**

That's…a little too hard to comprehend. I heard Wing talked about this whole subconscious thing, he said it is part of the mind of which one is not fully aware but which influences one's actions and feelings.

**[True. That is the reason why you cannot know what I am thinking because I am what you are thinking.]**

That is really confusing.

**[Indeed. My appearance, my voice, my personality are all the creation of your subconscious. This is how you see me fit. I also share your memories, memories from the day you were born.]**

! Then tell me, who is Wing to me? Why—

**[You know the answer well, do you not?]**

You! I…never met him before in my life, as far as I can recall…

**[That is also as far as I can reach. I'm sorry.]**

Why say sorry? Chuckles* It's not your fault.

**[But deep down in your heart you apologized for not having an answer, I am simply expressing it.]**

Oh yeah, keep forgetting you're me. So, what is your purpose then? I mean, you're my assistant and how exactly do you help me?

**[I analyze all the information you receive and give you suitable advice when you needed. But, as I mentioned, my only source of information comes from you, thus I might not able to give you the advice you required. Nevertheless, as our bond strengthened and your power grows, I will be able to leave your vicinity whenever I want to collect extra data. The limit of how far I can go is also based on the growth of your power.]**

Thanks for letting me know! This is incredible, it'll be very handy in the future. How about your "appearance"? Can everyone see you or only I can? Can you touch and move things or are you as hollow as a ghost?

**[It shall be your decision, whether you want me to be visible to others or not. Same goes for my ability to able to make physical contact.]**

Interesting. I'm definitely gonna show off to Evan. Perhaps I should consider order you to brew a cup of coffee for me. Hee Hee.

**[If that is what you wish.] **His eyes glint with slight annoyance.

I'm just kidding! Just kidding. You can read my memory, but what about yours? Can you remember anything before we met? Even about your creation? And what is the creature of the partial soul lingers in this katana to create your consciousness?

**[I…couldn't remember much about my creation, only parts and bits about it. One thing that I could tell for sure is that my maker took a very long time to perfect me. After that, I was asleep with a very, very faint conscious. Only a day before we met I was awoken when my maker pass me to your guardian. The creature, you could tell by just looking at me, can you not?]**

A dragon?

**[Precisely. A very ancient, majestic, mighty dragon. I do not, however, have any of the dragon's memories, I can only "feel" it in me. Like you are someone else now yet you realize you were once a different person.]**

Hmm, I think it would feel really strange if it happens to me. Ah! I just thought of something, can you, theoretically possess me if I were to, you know, lose conscious when I'm in a battle?

**[I don't know.]**

What?! You…don't know? I thought you would know every ability you could use!

**[Firstly, I am not almighty, I am still technically you. Secondly, I am only a day's old. Thirdly, this is what I meant about our "bond". The more we are becoming one, the more potential we can uncover. It would not be fun if we know everything in the beginning now would it?]**

I suppose I can't argue with that.

**[Any more question you want to ask, Em?]**

I'm good for now.

Footsteps can be heard drawing closer to my room. Wing opens the door with bowl of soup while Rex immediately vanish.

"Ah, you're awake. I thought I'm going to try waking you up but it seems you save me the trouble. Can you move? Even just a little bit?" He speaks softly. He closes the door after he enters my room and sit on a chair at the right side of my bed.

I try to move my mouth and speak, "I…can…move my…head…". First time in my life talking takes this much effort.

"That's good enough. Here, let me help you sit up." He "lock" the bowl of soup in the air and help me sit up. When I do, the bed sheet covering me fell off and I notice I had a change of clothes. That means…

"Don't worry, I'm not even in the slightest interested in your body, not the first time I saw one anyway." He notices my blush and purposely said that! And the things he said- I don't know I should be embarrassed or angry. He sits down after helping me get up, support the bowl of soup in his hand after he "unlocks" it from its position, spoons a tablespoon of soup and move it to the front of my lips.

"Open wide." I do as he says and swallow the soup **[okay I have no fucking idea how do I say this.]** Mm, haven't had this soup for quite some time.

"Your favorite soup with mana replenishing herb. After a night's sleep, you should be as good as new by morning." I miss this, this affectionate care for me when I was sick when I first arrive here. I slowly drink the soup with every tablespoon and eventually finished it.

"Did you communicate with the spirit of the sword before I came in?" He put down the empty bowl on his lap and asks.

"Yeah…how did you know?"

"I can sense remnants of its mana in this room. What did both of you talk about?"

"It's mostly just me asking him questions, telepathically. I asked him about what he is and how he help me, and other stuff."

"Are you satisfied with its answers?"

"Yeah…I guess so."

"I see…Well, don't talk anymore after I leave, best for you to sleep as soon as possible if you want full recovery."

"Okay." He stands up, walks toward the door, opens it, and before he closes the door again, he said,

"Have a good night, Emily." And he smiles naturally. After days of these events, I'm really happy he gives me that genuine, caring smile. He then closes the door and left.

I keep on staring on the door. No particular reason, perhaps just freeing my mind.

**[I suggest you should sleep now Em.]** Rex slowly materializes on the katana once again.

Yes, yes. Would you mind helping me switch off the lamp?

**[Gladly.]** As I slowly lie down, the light of the lamp dies down. I guess I've been sleeping too long, I can't even bring myself to close my eyes.

**[Since you are still unable to fall asleep, mind if I ask you a question?]** He suddenly asks.

I thought you can read my mind, shouldn't you already know the answer to your question?

**[Of course I know the answer, but, do you?]**

What is that you want to know?

**[What do you think about your relationship with your guardian?]**

First Evan, now you. Is it really important to know? Like the Zero twins, nobody knows for sure if they are just family or lover, nobody asks them. Why ask me?

**[Because I predict that some point in the future, your answer to this question will affect your ability to make decisions in extreme circumstances.]**

That is a really lame excuse.

**[It might be irrelevant right now, but you have to decide what is your relationship with him. This shall be my first advice to you.]**

…I hope I will have an answer eventually. But for now, how the hell am I going to fell asleep?!

You have any tricks up in your sleeves?

**[I suppose I can forcefully pull you into deep slumber, but I cannot make any guarantees.]**

Just do it. Not like I'm not gonna wake up forever…I won't, right?

**[5, 4, 3, 2, 1]**

Wait!

**[0]**

X

Time: Midnight Location: Remote safe house somewhere southeast in the Ossyria continent

"Any report of strange activities?"

"Only one, great Master. A crack in dimension has appeared under the castle of Kritias."

"Where does it connect to?"

"According to my calculation, I can only speculate it is connected to a distant star, one that could not reach by any means. The dimensional bridge was not formed naturally, it was deliberately set up by someone."

"From which end it was created?"

"The foreign world. The sole reason the bridge was formed in such short amount of time is because there is already a Gate below the castle."

"Did anything came through the Gate?"

"Someone, to be precise. 'He' seems to be the one responsible for the creation of this bridge and he has successfully enter our world. From the data I've collected, he could very mostly likely be-"

"Be what?"

"A **Chronokinesis **user. Master, this could be our chance-"

"Let's not be hasty. **They **would definitely know about this already, we mustn't fell for their potential trap. How many days have the bridge appear?"

"3 days ago."

"Heh, what a coincidence. By tomorrow morning, the Alliance will know of this bridge. When they do, they'll come looking for me. Then I'll just use them to do my bidding."

"It isn't wise to make contact with the Alliance, Master."

"Are you suspecting my abilities, Arkarium?"

"No Master! I wouldn't dare! What I mean was we should be cautious because **they **will absolutely hunt 'Him' down. By any chance the Alliance meet face to face, the Alliance will be no match for **them**! And if the Alliance were to fall in this crucial time, we could lose this war before we even started!" Said Arkarium while kneeling down, begging for forgiveness.

"I have the Alliance under my watch. I wouldn't waste centuries of waiting just to lose. Meanwhile, investigate the Gate once I deal with the Alliance. And one more thing,"

He turn his back at Arkarium and watch the night sky through the window.

"I want you to bring an expert with you. It's time for Will to come back."

X

Time: Unknown Location: Unknown

"L" A mysterious figure sitting on a grand throne call out. There is only a faint light enter this forbidden land, as such, only a dark figure can be seen.

"What is it, Overlord?" A slim and sexy figure in the same robe instantly appears in front of the figure on the throne.

"**Chronokinesis, **what a wonderful ability. The power to control time to the user's will. Tell me L, what would you do if you have this ability."

"Oh my. You shouldn't tease me like that Overlord."

"Of course, my beautiful servant. A person, from the world I once belong to has arrive the Maple World. I want you to capture him. Persuade him to join us if you can, if not, you know what to do."

"As you wish, Overlord." The sexy figure smiles grimly and vanishes into thin air.

"This is where the fate turns. This is where the game starts. I've made my first move, prepare for yourself, because I will erase your existence, Rayleigh." The mysterious figure stood up, revealing the symbol behind the robe, a crimson sun, before disappears.

Act 1: Where the Fate Turns.

Finish

**SO, is it good? I know there are a lot of talking and explaining, so if you say this chapter is boring, I hear you. For the next act, it's not gonna happen soon because of two reasons, 1) I have to wait for the Kinesis job and Heroes of Maple Blockbuster to release in my server because it might affect the story I'm trying to write and 2) I have the most important exam in my life next year, so yeah, I don't think I have time to think about writing. Although, I might have time to write a short story, so if any of you have ideas, do feel free to write it down in the review!**

**Finally, many thanks to all of you! Man if no one read my story I would have quit this already because no one in my surrounding cares about me writing stories and it kinda disappoint me. But, I'm not gonna go down easily. So, if you're a fan of my story, I really thank you for your support!**

**P/S If any translation is wrong, you can blame Google Translate for that.**

"This is it, with this, with his power, I can finally bring her back to life."

Act 2: The Phantom of Time 


End file.
